Thank God for Senzu
by The Green Man
Summary: Out of all the things that could happen when I die, I end up here. As a baby on Planet Vegeta. As long as I'm not Raditz. Or Nappa, don't want to go bald now. Here we go with another SI, hopefully not as cliche filled as the numerous other examples of this genre. I aim to go from the beginning of Dragon Ball to at least the end of Z, God be willing. Updates may be sporadic though.
1. Chapter 1

Re-uplaod to fix some spacing issues. I own nothing related to Dragon Ball.

Death. They say it's life's only inevitable. You're born, then you die. It's what happens between the two is the fun part. It happens to everybody eventually, no matter how big or small you are, all are equal before it.  
Whether it's a good death, say passing in your sleep for instance, or a horrible, like being burned alive, screaming, waiting for it's sweet embrace, it comes for us all.

Then there's me. Mine falls into the catergory of Stupid Deaths, ones that people could have avoided if they were paying more attention, or if they just thought things through. I was never any good at either. Still not, for a matter of fact. How I lived as long as I did still confuses me.

I was out for a run, trying to get some exercise and enjoy the nice weather, when I decided it would be a good idea to go through some woods. I played in them often as a kid, I never really thought of the potential danger of doing so. But still, you'd expect a person to have enough common sense to slow down going through uneven terrain, right?

Wrong. A rock killed me. I knew as soon as my foot touched that damn tree root that things were gonna go bad, just not how bad. I slipped, and fell down and cracked my head open on my murderer, that damn uncaring rock. Thankfully small mercies do happen to foolish people sometimes, and I passed out almost instantly, dying of blood loss within minutes.

When my body was found, how my family and friends reacted, I don't know. All I knew is that as soon as Death took me, I was aware of myself. Is there a God? Do you reincarnate? Or do you stop existing? Gonna say no to the third one, becuase I soon "woke up", in a manner of speaking, with bright lights, angry voices and a feeling of everything being ... heavier.

'Hold up, what the hell just happened? Did I just die?! What?! Where am I?! I've never heard of an afterlife like ... oh. Oh please God no.' As my newborn eyes adjusted to the light enough for me to get my first glimpse of my new reality, I recognized that man off to the side, looking like he just doesn't care about the commotion around him.

'The hair, the armor, the wristbands, the freaking tail wrapped around his waist like a belt... oh please God don't let me be Raditz.'

AN: I have never wrote anything before in my life, so constructive criticism is welcomed, and if anybody wants to be a huge help and beta for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. This fic will be taking elements from Bringer Of Death by the fantastic npberryhill. I only hope I can do even a fraction as good a job as he has. 


	2. Chapter 2

Getting the disclaimer out of the way, since I forgot to do so last chapter. I do not own Dragon Ball, or anything associated with it, in any way, shape or form. All rights belong to Akira Toriyama and Toei Animation.

I will be calling Goku's mom Gine though, but she's Gine in name only I promise.

'Character's thoughts'

"Character's talking"

'Ok calm down here Ben, this is probably some hallucination or something, just because you see Bardock doesn't mean he's real.' He was very real, as I found out not even a second later, as his tight, almost crushing grip enveloped my tiny frame.  
As he stared down at my face, shifting his grip so he held me underneath my arms and brought me to eye level. I stared around frantically, on the verge of a full-blown panic attack, and didn't see a red armband around his bicep. 'Ok, so Dodoria hasn't had his goons kill his squad yet, which tells me nothing except I'm probably not about to be shot into space in a few days.' "So Bardock, what are you going to name him? I heard a woman's voice say from behind me.

I tried to turn around as much as I could, trying to get a look at my new "Mom", at least I that's who I thought the voice belonged to, but I couldn't even see her in my peripheral vision. "I haven't thought of a name yet to be honest".  
"What do you mean you haven't thought of a name yet you idiot?! You told me you had one picked out already! If you didn't come up with a name yet, you could've told me and I would have named like I did Raditz! Oh thank God, I wasn't Raditz.  
"Look, I've been busy lately, you know damn well how many missions I've been sent on, forgive me for placing my survival over the runts name!" A master of muiltitasking, Bardock was not it seemed.

"... What about Kakarot?" I was finally turned to see my mother, that's going to take some getting used to, and she looked great for a woman who had just given birth. Saiyans. "That's... pretty good actually, I'm surprised,  
normally you don't think that well on your feet unless you're fighting." I saw her mouth stretch into a smirk, trying to get a rise out of him, and I started memorizing her appearance. Long, unruly hair, a shade of brown so dark one could be forgiven for thinking it's black. Her eyes were almost the same color, but I swear I saw blue somehwere in them. A pretty face, surprisingly with only one scar, stretching from her near her mouth to her ear. A close call.

"Yeah yeah, it's not like you're a genius either", and I could hear the grin in his voice. They both enjoyed teasing each other it seems. Maybe I lucked out, and they at least got along past the physical attraction.  
Bardock leaned over and placed me in my mother's arms, walking to the door of the room. "I'll go get a scouter, check the kid's power level. Hopefully he's stronger than his brother was Gine." He smirked as he walked out of the room.  
"Their power level doesn't mean anything at birth Bardock! You're a prime example of that!" Apperantly he wasn't strong at birth either. He's gonna be crushed when he realizes that I only have a measly 2.

I layed there, Gine holding me on her waist, and I felt a grumbling. 'Oh right, Saiyan hunger. That's gonna be one hell of an adjustment'. I then remembered how exactly a baby is fed. Oh God, this is going to be mortifying.  
"You're awfully quiet for a Saiyan baby, your brother didn't shut up for hours almost. Not that I'm complaining." She adjusted her hold on me, and shifted the sheet covering her. "Time for your first meal Kakarot",  
she said as she brought my head down. A few minutes later, Bardock walked back in, a scouter over his left eye, grumbling something about strength at birth being important. He turned it on with a click, and I saw symbols flash across it.

"Ok here, his power level is... huh. Higher than mine when I was born, not by much though", he said with a small amount of pride in his voice. "Good news Kakarot, you sit at 40, higher than my own 30 and your brother's 16."  
"Lower than my 75 though," Gine said with a smirk. A sour look crossed Bardock's face wiping the small smile he had instantly. "Excuse me miss 5500, but who's sitting at close to 9,000 power? Not you." He said as he reached for me.  
"Anyway, I'm headed out soon, me and the gang are headed to Kanassa, the place where even the so called elites", he said with disdain in his voice,"fear to tread." And he took me out into a hallway, lined with pods.

"But you just got back from that mission from Tritek, why are you off so soon?" As he pressed a button, and the pod's sleek, almost glass-like covering opened with a soft hissing noise, and he placed me inside. "Behave yourself now."  
As he walked away, back into Gine's room, I looked to my right, and groaned. I was occupying the pod next to Broly. Great. Hopefully he won't hate me this time, or else this is gonna suck more than it already does.

\- 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball or any media related to it in any official capacity. I'd have had front row tickets to the World Series if I did.

'Character's thoughts'

"Character speaking"

CHAPTER 2.

Gine had come to see me a few times, bringing Raditz with her every now and then, and wasn't that a shock. His hair was insane, even as a kid. Almost dragging along the floor, I don't know how he didn't trip on it. Or maybe he did, and I just didn't see it. Questions for later. She fed me every time she came, which never stopped being awkward, never more so than when Raditz was there, but I soon learned that was something out of the ordinary. It was some kind of formula whenever it wasn't her milk, and I soon grew to miss her coming by. Still weird. Raditz tried to act like he wasn't interested in me at all, but it was a bad act. I saw right through him, and played with him whenever I could. Score one for Saiyan babies learning to walk extremely quickly.

Bardock's, I suppose I should eventually get around to calling him and Gine Mom and Dad, but it doesn't feel right, mission to Kanassa had gone down exactly like it did in Canon. The visions, his team going to Meat without him, their deaths by Dodoria's goons, and Bardock avenging them was on schedule to go down with no muckups. Except a muckup named Kakarot. I never was too smart before I died, and I imagine I'll have even less chances to use my brain in the future, assuming I live that long. Note to self, use the Time Chamber with Gohan and try to prevent Trunk's time from being that hellhole that Gero engineered. Once again, assuming I live that long. Anywyas, Bardock's crew were stopping by for a little rest before they went to Meat without him.

It was then I met Bardock's crew, the "Siblings I never had, and wish I could get rid of" to use his own words. It was Borgos out of the four who liked me the most, which came as a surprise. He grumbled about having another runt to look after, claiming the stress of watching over Bardock as he grew made him bald. Tora was interesting, telling me tales of their adventures, and all the scraps they got into, and how they barely escaped with their lives when, in his own words, "Bardock had got bored after we got put down that rebellion on Taka, and picked a fight with the Freeza soldiers on that planet. All out war ensued for about a month, we almost lost our tails thanks to night ambushes, and Shugesh over there ended up married to the head soldiers daughter somehow. Then the moon came out and it eneded in our favor quickly. Thankfully, Taka was up for destruction anyway, so nothing major happened to us."

It was as I was listening to Tora's tales that I began to fully realize just how different Saiyans are. This is a species that goes around, slaughtering planets and comitting genocide because they enjoy it. As they put me back in my pod, and set off for Planet Meat and their doom, the full scale of what happened to me began to finally sink in. Not only do I belong to a race of genocidal fight junkies, they come off as the i good guys/i compared to Freeza. Who, I'm going to have to find some way to take down, and also dismantle his empire. Which means going up against Cooler, and King Cold, who's strength is an unknown. I started crying. 'I'm didn't ask for this! Why did I end up here when I died, why did I have to be Goku, this isn;t fair dammit!" As I started to get louder I ened up on my side,, facing the pod on my right, Broly laying there, looking at me, and somehow, just laying there, sniffling pathetically, I began to calm down looking at him.

'What good is crying and freaking out going to do me, none that's what. Figure out what to do from here, have your existential crisis later. Step 1: Don't reach for some fruit in a tree and fall down that ravine. I'd rather not take a chance and die the way Goku almost did. Step 2: Behave for Gohan. If he's going to be kind enough to care for some random baby from a pod the likes of which he's probably never seen before, the least I can do is be good for him. Step 3: DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT, LOOK AT THE FULL MOON. I don't need my mind overwhelmed by the Ozaru transformation. Which means fighting at night, and loking at the moon must be a last resort, this can't make it any worse kind of option.

Step 4: Train. Find Roshi asap. Drag Yamcha with me if I can, and work my tail off, hopefully not literally, I actually like it after the adjustment period.' It was very awkward, having a new limb and having to learn how to control it. It took me almost a week to make it do anything at will, and I've only just learned how to make it loop into a belt and stay like that without thinkg about it. Being able to scratch everywhere on my back was a godsend though. As a few more days passed, and I kept working at controlling my tail, and slowly expanding my pain tolerance with it, I got the news. Bardock's team had died on Meat, and after he finally set off there himself, he barely escaped. Which means Freeza will destroy this Planet within the week.

Bardock POV

'Tora, Fasha, Shugesh and Borgos, they're all gone. My friends, my comrades dead because of Freeza. And myself, unable to so much as scratch their killer. I've seen it while I was on Meat, Freeza destroying Vegeta, killing the King, and taking the Prince captive. Raditz is on a mission somehwere over in the south sector of the galaxy, he should be fine. But I should go after him. But Gine and Kakarot, and all the other Saiyans have no idea what's coming, and Vegeta hates me after I challenged him years ago for the throne. So going to him is off the table. I'll have to challenge him again. I can't afford to lose this time.' As the pod touched down on Planet Vegeta, the Saiyans who recieved the pods coming out and doing the usual work of prepping it for the nest mission.

As Bardock walked down the halls to the healing bay, people were staring at his blood-soaked form, wondering what could do that to a Sayian whose strength is rumored to rival the King's. Mostly though, the hushed whispers were about Bardock's team finally meeting their match, on Meat of all places, and the snickers and insults flew. Until Bardock put 5 of them through the wall. Turned them to ashes in doing so mind, but still through the wall. He got to the healing pod, and ignored the doctor asking about his condition, barking orders to start the damn pod already. 'I only have about 10 days at most, I'd estimate, before Freeza gets here. I'll have to beat Vegeta, and come up with something to stop him from destroying this planet. I'll need to send Kakarot away, and I might need to send Gine with him. The age of Saiyans going around and wiping plants is over', and with that, he let exhaustion take him.

CHAPTER 2.

AN. Setting up for a huge break in canon soon, with Freeza delaying his destruction somewhat, as Bills(yes I know it's technically Beerus hush) hasn't told Freeza to get rid of Vegeta for him yet. In this story, Bardock was one of the strongest Saiyans in the war against the Tuffles, and had challenged Vegeta for the throne, losing after a hard fought battle. The newly crowned King Vegeta was tempted to kill his would-be usurper, but Bardock's strength was too useful. Thus why he's a lower class Saiyan, despite being stronger than Nappa, an Elite. Vegeta passes on his dislike of Bardock onto his son, thus giving Prince Vegeta an established reason to dislike Goku before he even meets him, and showing why he has no concern for Raditz.

Please read and review, and constructive criticism is welcomed. See y'all at the next chapter. 


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dragon Ball or any media associated with it. I'd have lifetime seats at Wrigley if I did.

'Characters thinking'

"Characters speaking"

CHAPTER 3: START

Bardock was only in the healing tank for 36 hours, and after putting on fresh armor he went to go have his power checked. " 12,000?! This can't be right! Only the King's that strong! This damn thing has to be on the fritz!" Said the technician who scanned Bardock. "So I'm equal to the King huh, good. That'll make this easier." And he turned and left the room, ignoring the shouted questions demanding he explain what he meant by that. He looked around for a moment to get his bearings, and took off for the palace, flying at a calm but swift pace to preserve his energy.

'Vegeta's a crafty son of a bitch, he may not be the close combat fighter I am, but his mastery over ki attacks is unrivaled among all Saiyans. And he's had years to train in peace, never going out on any missions. That's my advantage. It's been ages since he fought for his life, and I've been doing that for years.' A savage grin stretched across Bardock's face.

'This has been a long time coming Vegeta. For all your failures to your people, the way you sneer at us lower-class Saiyans, like we're not even worth noticing, and giving away your own son to Freeza. I'll enjoy beating you across the planet and making you beg for mercy.' As he landed at the entrance to the palace and walked up the stairs, the guards barred his path. "Halt! What business does a low-class like you have to come to His Majesty's palace without warning?"  
Bardock thought about just pushing through, his blood racing in anticipation for the fight ahead, but decided against it. Waste of energy he needed for his battle with Vegeta. "I'm here to challenge Vegeta for the throne. And unless you want Freeza to kill us all, you'll let me pass." Taking advantage of their shock, he pushed through and began walking to the throne room. Spotting a royal aide, he made his way over and asked for directions to the throne room.

The aide opened her mouth to question Bardock, but froze upon seeing his face. There was something about his face, that made her think twice about stopping him, and she just pointed. Thanking her, he ran off. 'I bet you don't even interact with your servants do you Vegeta? Why should you? You're their King, why waste your time on anybody lower than the top-class Elites? You weren't always like that, hell back when we fought the Tuffles, you showed concern for your men, you even took the time to get to know some of them, you were a man I could follow, even call King. You changed though. As victory neared, you began throwing Saiyan lives away, as long as it would ensure victory. What did it matter, they're low-class. That's all they're good for.' As memories of the man Vegeta was filled his mind and made him feel some form of regret, the rage at who he became swiftly replaced it, and he started speeding through the palace, not even bothering with doors.

Not even a minute after he entered the palace, he arrived at the doors to the throne. 'Should I just open them and walk in? Maybe. But then again, when am I gonna get another chance to do something like this?' Grinning, he pulled his leg back, gathered his strength and kicked the doors through the back wall behind the throne and clear to the mountains behind the palace. 'So glad I didn't just walk in, Gine would kill me if I didn't do something like that.' Taking a moment to look around, observing the shocked faces of the ocupants of the room, he saw Vegeta looking at him, then glancing at the massive hole the doors made. And repeating the act. He sighed, as if apologizing to the doors.

"You know, those were perfectly good doors. They didn't creak, they opened smoothly, hell they even looked nice. But you had to kick them through the wall. You haven't changed at all, have you Bardock." As he ignored the King mourning for his doors, his eyes turned to the two Saiyans on the floor, recognizing Paragus, and seeing his son Broly, held protectively in his arms.

"Paragus? What are you doing here? Why's Broly with you?" He began walking forward, his saiyan hearing detecting the guards finally starting to catch up to him. Lazy bastards. "Bardock! What am I doing here you ask? The King," he spat onto the floor, " has decided my son was a threat to the Prince. After all my years of loyal service, the thanks I get is Vegeta trying to kill the both of us." Bardock was shocked somewhat, knowing that Vegeta didn't take kindly to anybody coming close to his level of strength. But killing a baby, no. He wasn't a saint, far from it, but he had lines he didn't cross.

'Broly does have a 10,000 power level, which already makes him one of the 5 strongest Saiyans, but it's just outrageous for a baby.' Bardock breathed in, and stared at the King "Vegeta! Freeza has betrayed us, he sent Dodoria to kill my team on Meat, and he almost killed me. We have a week, 10 days at best, before he destroys this planet, and the Saiyns with it!"

"Do you have any proof? We've been nothing but loyal to him for years, why would he betray his best fighters?" Vegeta reached for the clasp for his cape, and removed it, handing it to a servant, who vanished quickly. As he walked down the stairs to the throne, Bardock felt Vegeta gathering his energy. He began to respond in kind.

"I've seen it! You know the details of my mission to Kanassa! They granted me their powers of foresight, so I'd see our doom coming like they did theirs! But me proving it doesn't matter! I challenge you for the throne Vegeta! We will die if I sit back and do nothing!" The occupants of the room stared at him in shock, the guards ordering him to surrender at once, stopping at a glare from their King.

"This didn't work out the first time you tried Bardock, what makes you think it will work now? Guards, remove Paragus and his son from my sight, I'll deal with them after I crush this upstart." The guards began moving towards Paragus, and Bardock acted to save his fellow Saiyan. Whirling around, he focused his ki and pushed, the group sent flying through several walls. This took his eyes off Vegeta though, who blasted him through the roof of the palace, and the fight for the future of the Saiyan race began.

CHAPTER 3: END.

And we have our first big break from Canon! Bardock vs Vegeta! I've always thought Bardock was stronger, but as far as I know, it's unknown which of them was more powerful. I don't know how well I'll do with the fight scene coming up, so bear with me please. And I tried spacing out my paragraphs more, hopefully it looks better now. Read and review, and constructive criticism is welcomed!


	5. Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dragon Ball or any media associated with it in any fashion. If I did, I'd probably have killed myself through a tragic sky-diving accident.

'Characters thinking'

"Characters speaking"

CHAPTER 4: START

Gine had come to visit again, taking me to go see Bardock while he healed from the disaster at Meat. As we turned the corner to the healing bay, the whole building shook, and there was a rumble that sounded like it might crack the planet in two. "What the hell was that! That wasn't an earthquake, who's fighting and where?!" Not wasting any time walking, she took off down the corridor, and I had my first experiance with high-speed movement. Everything's blurry, the sense of vertigo is real, and I swear my eyes were spiraling like you'd see in a cartoon. How I didn't vomit I don't know. Bardcok evidently wasn't in the healing tank, and the first thing I saw when everything went back to normal was Gine holding somebody by the throat against the wall.

"Where. Is. Bardock." Never in my life, or lives I guess would be the proper term, questions for later, has somebody scared me more than she did at that moment, but it was kind of cool too. Not for the poor sap whe was holding, who told us that he'd left for the palace less than 30 minutes ago. After she let him breath of course. "The palace? Why would he go to the palace, the King hates him."

"He said something about being equal to him after we scanned his power level, I don't know!" And I saw her putting it together, with a look that was both growing horror and incredible rage. "He's challenging Vegeta again, isn't he. Of course he is, why else would he go to the palace." Then both me and the poor man she was choking saw a sight we'd take to our graves. She smiled. Scratch that thought from earlier, this is the scariest thing I've ever seen.

"how kind of you to volunteer to watch Kakarot for me Basil, while I go to fetch his father. It even kinder of you to not only swear he'll come to no harm, but to give me your scouter as well. Truly, you are the most gracious of Saiyans." And on that note, she left me with Basil, took his scouter and blasted off to the fight, leaving the both of us cowering in fear in the corner.

"I've seen Freeza destroy planets and laugh about it, and I've seen Saiyans do acts of cruelty that would make the devil weep. But nothing has scared me more in my 73 years of life than that woman." I nodded in agreement. Scary woman. But also really cool. ... BARDOCK DID WHAT?!

(BARDOCK VS VEGETA)

Vegeta wasted no time in chasing after Bardock, he had to put him down quickly, lest Bardock move the fight into closer quarters. Loathe as he was to even think it, he recoginized Bardock was one of the greatest close combat fighters that's ever lived among Saiyans, maybe even the best. Spotting his quarry still tumbling through the air, he sent a series of ki blasts at him, and charged his signature attack. "BARDOCK! For the crime of assualting your King, I sentance you to death! SUPER GALICK GUN!" The sound of the King's death sentance firing rang across the skies like the trumpets of Judgement day, and the dark purple blast soon reached it's target.

THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

So great was the attack's strength that even Vegeta was pushed back by the shockwave from it's impact. Not taking any chances, he charged and fired volley after volley of ki blasts into the enourmous cloud of smoke, and heard each make impact. He paused, waiting to see a corspe fall from the smoke or Bardock to come out barely alive. His first mistake.

His instincts scream at him to move, and he whirled around in time to catch Bardock's fist with his face. Bardock reaches for his hair, and uses it reel Vegeta back in, delivering a knee straight to his gut, and then hammerfists him in the small of his back, sending him flying. Bardock is soon in pursuit.

'Damn that hurt, I shouldn't have turned my back on him, but I couldn't let them get Paragus. I have to keep up the presure on him or I'm done for. Can't take another barrage like that." Vegeta pushed out with his ki, his aura exploding around him, Bardock stopped, then cursed as he went in loops, dodging ki blasts as they created a firestorm in the skies over Vegeta, and a beacon for Gine, racing towards the fight. 'This is pointless! Sooner or later he's going to land one of these, and I'll be in real trouble. Think Bardock! What're your options. ... If this is the best I can come up with, I'm screwed.' Bardock breathed in, focusing his ki into his defenses, and prepared to charge right through the blasts. He accelerated towards Vegeta, shock showing on his face.

'Why would he charge straight at me? He knows how big of a target he is. He has to have something up his sleeve. He's too good not to.' Not one to turn down a gift when given in battle, Vegeta's barrage intensified, a veritable wall of blasts hurtling towards Bardock. 'Try dodging this you oaf.' Vegeta smirked, the smug grin looking right at home on his features as he reached for the energy, and promptly split several smaller blasts off them. All of them.

"KING'S ARTILLERY!" As Vegeta's voice boomed across the sky, it was soon drowned out by the roar of his attack hurtling straight at his foe. Who began regretting several of his choices at that very moment. As the blasts reached Bardock, blinding him from Vegeta, the Saiyan smirked.

And vanished, straining his speed to its limits as he left his chestplate behind to take the hit for him. 'Rather simple, but it'll sound like I was hit, which is all I need to get up close and end this. Assuming I outrun the explosion.'

Which proved to be rather difficult, as this one dwarfed the explosion from Vegeta's initial barrage, the shockwaves collapsing the mountains near their fight, and the aftershocks reaching the city, knocking everybody who hadn't braced themselves over. As Bardock took advantage of the smokescreen to try to get behind him, Vegeta flashed into sight right in his face, landing a brutal ki-coated left hook to his jaw, bruising it heavily. The King didn't let up on his assault, pounding Bardock in every vital area he could reach. "You really think that would work twice? You're predictable Bardock," bellowed the King, fury etced into his face, "thinking that your meager advantage in hand-to-hand means I'll stay away! I am a Saiyan! I fear no one!" Vegeta slammed his fist into Bardock's kidneys, relishing the pained gasp as his foe tried to catch the air driven from his lungs.

Smirking, he pulled back his other hand and charged it with ki, intent on impaling him. "And I don't fear you. DIE!" His hand shot forward at blinding speed, only for it to be dodged, and his wrist encased in a crushing grip. Bardock lifted his face, grinning despite the beating he just endured.

"You don't fear me? Hah. You're a bad liar Geets," he always enjoyed the rage on his face when he called him that, "you should have stayed at a distance!" Bardock slammed his fist into Vegeta's chin, then launched his knee into his chest, followed by a sharp kick and leg sweep, finishing with an uppercut to set up his attack.

His hand glowed with ki, seemingly enveloped in flame. "HEAT PHALANX!" His flame-covered fist crashed into Vegeta's spine, severely damaging the armor where his attack landed. Not letting up for an instant, he fired off a quick series of jabs, ending with a blow to his stomach that folded the King in two, his other hand already charged with his next blow, "RIOT JAVELIN!", and slamming straight into Vegeta's chest, sending him flying for a moment before the deadly ball of energy dentonated.

Bardock took a moment to catch his breath, more hurt than he was letting on. 'He's broken at least a rib on my right, and my kidneys are on fire. He's stepped up his game when it comes to melee. He should be in just as bad a shape as I am though. Hopefully.' His brief reprieve over, he chased off after Vegeta, his eyes scouring the wasteland for any sign of his opponent. Only to spin frantically to avoid the piercing beam from below. "Found you!" And off he raced, intent on finishing this before it got out of hand.

CHAPTER 4: END

Well I hope that wasn't too bad for my first fight scene, and I did use a couple of moves from DBZ Budokai 3 for Bardock, given how he's showed very little in canon. As always, read and review, and construcive criticism is welcomed.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball or any related media. If I did, Gohan would have killed Cell right after he spat out 18.

'Characters thinking'

"Characters talking"

CHAPTER 5: START

Bardock flew into the ravine where Vegeta's attack came from, on high alert for an attack coming from anywhere. "Come on out you coward, fight me like a Saiyan!" Bardock charged a volley of blasts,"If you don't I'll blast you out!" and laid waste to the area around him, bringing the ravine down on top of itself. A wall of ki keeping the numerous tons of rocks from burying him, Bardock scanned the rubble furiously, waiting for any sign of Vegeta.

"Fight you like a Saiyan? Fine by me." He whirled around, just in time for Vegeta to hammer fist his eyes, and shatter Bardock's nose. He followed up by slamming his lkeg into Bardock's already damaged side, shattering another rib. Roaring in pain, Bardock lashed out with his ki, an explosive wave forming around him. But Vegeta parted the attack almost effortlessly, Bardock's shock and pain not giving hime time to do anything capable of any real damage. Vegeta reached out, placing his hands on Bardock's chest, devoid of armor. Charging an attack, he put vast amounts of his energy into it, wanting to finish this quickly.

"Galick Cannon." And he fired, Bardock's form quickly being lost in the blinding flash of light. Vegeta kept up the attack as long as he could, not taking any chances. When he stopped, he flew out of the ravine, and bombarded it with untold volley's of blasts, before charging, "KING'S HAMMER!", and firing a massive sphere of energy. The explosion added on to the sestruction their fight had already wreaked on the wasteland, consuming it entirely.

Vegeta laned, sinking to his knees in exhaustion. He sat there for a moment, panting heavily after the exertion, not used to fighting at this level for an extended period. 'This is embaressing, the King of all Saiyans, out of breath this easily? I've been taking it too easy, while Bardock was out on missions. No more. I will lead squads myself, clear planets myself. And I will take back my son! Freeza will regret the day he took him from me!'

Recovered enough, to begin making his way to the palace, he took to the air. His second mistake. Had he stayed on the ground even a few seonds more, he'd have noticed the subtle shifting of the rocks. Bardock's bloodied hand shot from the ground, grabbing the departing King by the leg. "How?! Why won't you die?!"

Bardock said nothing as he yanked Vegeta to the ground, slamming him against it hard. And doing so again, and again, and again. He brougt Vegeta up close, only to punch him away. He moved, appearing next to the King, grabbing his head and grinding his face through the ground, rocks shattering on Vegeta's face. Soon having enough of this, he threw him skyward, and took off, ignoring his bodies pleas for rest. Swiftly catching his prey, his knee soon embedded itself in the King's kidneys, 'Payback's a bitch.' and slamming a hammerfist into Vegeta's spine, sending him hurtling to the ground. he waited until he had almost his the ground, and vanished, and reappeared next to Vegeta, launching a brutal spinning kick into his ribs.

Vegeta spat blood, and grit his teeth. Gripping Bardocks's leg, he smashed his elbow into the joint of his knee, hearing a satisfying pop. If Bardock noticed, he didn't show it, his own elbow crashing into Vegeta's eye, blinding it and nearly popping it out. Vegeta roared, whether in pain or in rage, maybe both, and with a brutal uppercut, he broke Bardock's jaw, already weakened from his blow earlier. Once again, Bardock didn't make a sound, bringing his still working knee directly into Vgeta's groin.

Adrenaline pumping, Vegeta ignored it, but it stunned him enough for Bardock crash an elbow into his throat, and Vegeta could not ignore this. Choking, he reached for Bardock's offending limb, and found nothing. Bardock slammed the King onto his back, and he followed him to the ground. Quickly getting into position, he grabbed Vegeta's arm and snapped it, drawing a scream, and repeated the act with his other arm. 'Should I? Yeah I should.' And he broke his leg.

He staggered to his feet, forcing his damaged knee to stay upright for a lillte longer, and charged a blast. "Yeild. I'd rather not kill you, I'll need you when Freeza arrives." Vegeta opened his eye, body broken, bleeding in more places than not, and glared.

"The King," he forced out with some effort, " does not yield." And with the last dregs of his energy, an explosive wave shot out. Vegeta waited for the dust to die down, and saw Bardock still standing there. "Didn't even flinch, did you? ... Is he really going to destroy us Bardock?"

"He is. I've seen it, and I heard Dodoria mention it too, after he thought he killed me. We need to do something, or the Saiyan race is doomed. Now yield damn you." Vegeta lay there, panting for breath.

"Fine. I, King Vegeta, yield the fight, and the throne, to you Bardock. They're your responsibilty now. Don't let them turn you into what I became." Vegeta lost consciousness, and Bardock's knee buckled and sent him to the ground as well. Sprawled on his back, hurting all over, he really shouldn't have talked with his jaw like it is, he layed there, panting at the sky.

'Huh. That went better than I expected. Now how am I gonna get back. Kind of pointless if we both die out here.' The sound of somebody touching down reached his ears, and he opened his eyes, and promptly wished Vegeta killed him. Gine was not happy.

"So. I get up this morning, decide to fetch Kakarot and go see his father. Imagine my surprise, when you're not there, and Basil tells me you've taken off to the palace to challenge Vegeta. And here I find you, broken after you just got done healing. If you didn't win Bardock." She left that hanging in the air, the threat of worse things than the beating he just endured being promised.

"I won. I made him yield and spared him. But uh, kinda can't move. Help?" If looks could kill, Freeza would die at the intensity behind her glare. She pointedly ignored him, and picked up Vegeta's unconscious body, and only then moved to grab Bardock.

"I'm putting you in the slowest tank we have I swear. Don't scare me like that. Do you have any idea... Are you even listening?" Victory secured, and his life in no danger, Bardock allowed himself to pass out, a small smile on his face. Gine grumbles to herself, "That damn smile of yours. Can't stay mad at you can I? I'll get you though."

She reaches the healing bay of the palace quickly, putting Bardock in first before she reluctantly puts Vegeta in as well. 'He'd be pissed if I let him die after he spared him I imagine.' She does set his tank to work slower though, if he wakes up and decides to revoke his surrender, she'd be unable to stop him.

She leaves the room to find almost the entire city staring at her, demanding to know who won. She breathed in, and then realized this technically made her Queen. 'Yep. Definately killing him.' "Bardock has defeated King Vegeta in combat! He is your new King of the Saiyans!" The lower-class Saiyans erupted into cheers. Bardock had long been seen as their champion, and for him to ascend to the throne gave them hope that their lot in life may be changing.

The Elites were fuming, even as some of them cheered at Bardock's victory. "A filthy low-class as King?! I won't have it! We need to act now, before he wakes up and end him before he tears down everything we've worked for!" The young hotshot Saiyan stormed off to do just that, when a deep booming voice ordered him to hold.

"Halt, Turles! If we act now and remove Bardock, it would be obvious that we are involved. Remember, Bardock is aware of us. Vegeta being deposed does add complications to our plan, but his son will surely want to avange his father's defeat. We wait, and groom the young prince. You'll get our chance at your brother Turles, I promise." The Saiyan grinned, he couldn't believe his luck. Vegeta gone, his chief weapon in his plan unharmed, and Bardock none the wiser to his involvement in it all.

CHAPTER 5: END.

Well that wraps that up. I tried making the end of it be a bit more brutal, energy depleted as they were. But Bardock's been beaten badly before, he can cope with it better. Had Vegeta gone through the beatings that Bardock's taken over the years, he would have won. His son's stubborness comes from somewhere after all. And we have a group none too happy with Bardock's victory. We'll see how this plays out. And yes, Turles and Bardock are brothers, Bardock being the eldest, Turles being one of the elites who sided with Vegeta. Mostly though it's a reason for why Turles resembles Goku so heavily. Read and Review, next chapter should come pretty quickly. Green Man out.


	7. Chapter 7

Dislcaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball or anything related to it in any fashion. Akira Toriyama does. Please support the official release, even GT, I don't care if you hate it.

'Characters thinking'

"Characters speaking"

AN: Forgive me for any flip-flopping on Ozaru/Great Ape terms. I'll try to stick with Ozaru though. No promises.

CHAPTER 6: START

It took 2 days for Bardock to get out of the healing tank this time, Gine and Paragus working round the clock to deal with the fuss that was raised as a result of the fight. As he awakened, he seemed surprised to see me with Basil. I don't know what he's going to do next, how he plans on saving the Saiyans from Freeza. I don't even know if I'll be sent to Earth. If I'm not, I'm in some deep trouble.

"Basil? What're you doing with Kakarot?" It was then I learned Saiyans don't beleive in wearing clothes to the tank, and I didn't need that burned into my eyes. My precious eyes. Contaminated. As Bardock dressed, Basil explained how he was, well forced is being rather kind, roped into watching me. He chuckled at that, and realized with horror that what's coming for him is going to be so much worse.

"My sympathies Bardock. That's one scary woman you have there."

"Yeah she is. Wait, since I guess I'm the King now, aw hell. I gotta marry her now don't I?"

"I'd say yes, you probably should. Don't die on the honeymoon."

"Please. Death would be too good for me. I'm going to suffer something worse than death. She's gonna make me cook for myself." The sound of Basil's palm meeting his head was loud in the closed room, and as Bardock prepared to face the music, it was brought to him in the form of Paragus charging through the door.

"Basil I swear to whatever gods are listening he better be... awake. Huh. I seems the King's own healing tank really is the best." The older Saiyan walked forward, met Bardock like a brother, and clobbered him over the head. More than once.

"You utter imbecile! Do you have any idea how reckless that was! If you lost we'd all be dead when Freeza gets here you dumbass!" I heard someone running down the hall, and quickly got behind the tank that held Vegeta to avoid the hurricane called Gine.

She stormed into the room as I peaked my head around my hiding place, opened her mouth like she was about to scream at him, and did something nobody expected. She started to cry, throwing herself into his arms, weakly beating his chest with her fists. I've never seen somebody look more awkward. Bardock looked at Basil, clearly lost, and he just smiled. A gruff of laughter came from Paragus as he turned and left the room, Basil following.

I slowly emerged from behind the tank to see Bardock slowly sink to the floor, Gine held in his arms, looking as lost as I was. He spotted me, "Come here Kakarot.", in the softest tone I'd ever hear from him, and I toddled my way over. Still getting used to the tail. Gine reached out an arm, picking me up and handing me to Bardock.

"Don't you leave him without his father Bardock. Or Raditz either. Ok?"

"I won't. So, what's been happening while I was healing?"

(SCENE BREAK)

As Bardock was informed of the happenings of the past two days, he revealed his plan for dealing with Freeza's assault. "I've discovered, that while the majority of Saiyans probably can't control the Ozaru transformation, even their feral minds will recoginize an order from a stronger Saiyan, which is how I stopped my team from rampaging. I had some measure of control over myself then, and the last few times I've transformed, I've been in full control. Who here has full control over themselves when they transform? And are confident about leading other Ozarus?"

Out of the 200 Saiyans in the War Room, only 15 raised their hands. Bardock sighed. "Ok, that's... less than I'd hoped for, but we have more Saiyans who aren't here right now, maybe we have more who can control themselves. Did Nappa go with the prince?"

"Yes sire, he did. A shame, we could really use Commander Nappa's strength right now." Bardock fought the urge to drop his head in frustration. Nappa was an experianced Saiyan, and while he may not have been the most powerful, the man soaked up damage like he'd never seen before.

"Alright then, go out and find as many Saiyans who have control over themselves while transformed as you can. Take Spice. Oreg, and Parse with you Tomat. And drop the sire. Sir will do." Tomat saluted, right hand snapping over his heart, and he and the other 3 left to fulfill their new King's orders.

As he and Vegeta were recovering from their fight, Gine and Paragus had their hands full trying to keep the Saiyans in line, and give proof Bardock was right. They got a lucky break for once, a Saiyan named Saffron intercepted Dodoria bragging about he had killed Bardock's Elite, and crushed their captain, and how he was going to have front-rowseats to the destruction of the Saiyans beside Lord Freeza himself.

To say they didn't take it well would be an understatement. Disbelief and shock was the most common reaction, followed swiftly by anger and a cold rage. Others were fearful, if Freeza himself was coming, what could we do against that monster, and they turned and ran. Paragus let them go, "If they would rather run and save themselves than fight to defend their home and fellow Saiyans, I don't want them disgracing Planet Vegeta with their presence ever again.", he said, and it was left at that.

By the time Bardock had awoken, several hundred Saiyans had chosen flight as their response. Bardock ordered them banished. He had over 100,000 Saiyans available at his command, and thousands more pouring in from the local systems. Despite himself, he began to think this crazy idea might actually work.

"Ok, so here's our best chance at living through this, and stopping that bastard from destroying our home. Using the artificial moon technique, we wait until he's in orbit. His ship is big, and he loves drama. We won't miss it. Then we launch the false moons into the sky, and as one, transform. Myself and former King Vegeta will be at the front. Those among us who can control ourselves in the Ozaru state will lead those who can't, and we will all barrage Freeza's ship with blasts. Even though he's more powerful than any one of us, with over a 100,000 Great Apes firing at him, even Freeza can't stand up to that. If he can, well, at least we go down fighting, right?!" The gathered crowd roared.

"WE DON'T BOW TO HIM ANYMORE! WE ARE A FREE RACE! WE'LL SHOW HIM WHY THE SAIYANS ARE THE MIGHTIEST WARRIORS ALIVE!"

(SCENE BREAK)

"Not too bad out there, my King." Gine's never going to get used to the way his face scrunches up whenever he's called that. She'd have to stop teasing him if she did.

Don't give me that crap, I get enough of that from everybody else. Anyways, Gine. We need to talk." Bardock's expression was serious. Whatever he had on his mind, it wasn't a laughing matter.

"About what? We've already sent off as many children as we can Bardock, anybody left is of fighting"

"I want you to go with Kakarot. I've found a suitable planet for him to hide on. Freeza will never notice it, it's in a backwater area of the galaxy, he'll be safe there. But he needs his mother with him."

Gine stood there in shock, disbelief clear across her face. Stubborness soon overwriting that. "I'm not leaving you Bardock! I told you years ago I'm with you until I die, and right before the biggest fight our race has ever had you want to send me away?! I can't do that again! It was hard enough standing on the side, when you fought Vegeta," her voice cracking with emotion, she kept going," I'm not leaving you here to face Freeza!"

Before she could speak more, and further weaken his resolve to send her away, Bardock's lips were on hers, and she rode him to the floor, where they both knew this could be the last time they were together, and they took advantage of it.

(SCENE BREAK)

Bardock watched as the ship carrying the woman he loved and his son took off for Earth. Even if Freeza kills them all in 3 days, Bardock can die at peace. Freeza would never find his son, and if his visions were accurate, his son would be the one to end Freeza's reign over the galaxy. 'I'm sorry Gine, but I can't let you fight him. You need to be there for Kakarot. I'm no good with children, and he'll need somebody to rely on.'

Paragus walked up, hand reaching out and clasping Bardock's armored shoulder. Being the King, Paragus had all but forced Bardock into wearing a new custom suit of armor. "Bardock the low-class is dead. In his place is Bardock the King, you should at least look the part." The armor covering him was a deep emerald green along the torso, turning darker as it went up to his head, his pauldrons being almost black as pitch. He reluctantly put on a bodysuit underneath that had sleeves, "Don't give them any bare targets if you can avoid it, it's better than going bare-skinned at least.", and it was a deep blue in color. He had ditched the cape, instead having a golden pin in the shape of a roaring Ozaru on his chest.

"You ok Bardock? Don't go second guessing the decision to send her away. I'd do the same in your position."

"It's not that. It's... nerves I guess. What if we can't do this Paragus? It'll have been all for nothing."

"If that's your attitude, you might as well give the throne back to me Bardock." They turned to see Vegeta walking out towards them his armor having been repaired, the emblem on his chest still there. Paragus frowned, seeing that as a challenge to the new King, but Bardock stepped forward.

"Finally up and about I see, took you long enough. Gotta say, your personal healing tank is amazing. Only took me 2 days to get back up to 100%. Took you 3. Always playing catchup."

Vegeta wasn't amused by Bardock's grin. "You know damn good and well that was your woman's doing. Where are we in terms of preparation? How many Saiyans capable of controlling the Ozaru transformation do we have?"

"Within this city, 30. Planet wide, and all the ones who will arrive within 24 hours, 150. We might pull this off yet, General."

Paragus stood there in shock. Bardock, making his chief rival a general? Absurd!

"I know what I'm doing Paragus. Vegeta still commands loyalty from many Saiyans, and that's what his crest will now represent. In terms of military command, he's second to me. I need him with me at the front, or we are all doomed. Survive, then go back to hating him. Ok?"

Paragus growled, his hatred for Vegeta eveident, but pushed it aside with great effort. "Only until this is over with Bardock."

"That goes for you too Vegeta. Don't go out of your way to piss him off. We have bigger problems than this. Got it? Good." Not waiting for an answer, Bardock walked inside tha palace, then turned and asked Vegeta, "hey, during our fight, you didn't see those doors anywhere did you?"

CHAPTER 6: END

For the moment, Paragus and Vegeta have put aside their feud. But for how long? Will they really be ablt to ignore it that easily? Find out next time, on Thank God for Senzu Z! Joking aside, sending Gine to earth was planned, it wasn't some spur of the moment thing. We'll get to Goku's adventures soon enough, and yes, he's already started referring to himself as Goku. That he's from our Earth is not something he'll tell people, but maybe somebody will find out anyways. Read and Review, Green Man out.

(OMAKE)

"Dad, why are we on the mountains again?" To find the horn my son."

The boy pointed, "You mean that horn daddy?"

"Yes! The legendary horn of healing! It's story has been passed down by my ancestors, and at last I've found it!" Wasting no time, the father put the horn to his lips, and blew it, hoping it's legendary healing abilities would fix his son's illness.

The noise was heard all across planet Vegeta.

RICOLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- "OH WHAT THE FU" and his son's illness, known as the cold, was soon not a factor. As two very big, very shattered doors flew at them both, and smote them against the mountain.

"Did you hear something Vegeta? Sounded like some kind of horn"

"I didn't hear a damn thing. Back to the fight."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball, nor any media related to it. I'd have drank myself to death on Chocolate milk by now if I did.

'Characters thoughts'

"Characters speaking"

CHAPTER 7: START

Over the course of the next 3 days, every Saiyan who could control the Ozaru transformation was assigned a group of those who couldn't, and the leftovers would fall under Bardock and Vegeta's influence. That was the plan anyway, and no plan survives contact with the enemy. Every child had been sent to a non-hostile planet, the conditioning that drove them to wipe it wiped from their pods as per Bardock's decision to stop the planet cleansing they had been doing. The galaxy hated them enough as it is, he didn't want it getting any worse. Though if this worked and they killed Freeza, that might buy them some goodwill. Maybe.

Vegeta turned to face Tomat, the lieutenant proving himself invaluable in preparing for Freeza's arrival. "Report Tomat"

"Sir. Our scouters estimate Freeza's arrival within the next 20 minutes. He'll be in range of our attacks in 25."

"Are all the Saiyans who can't control themselves aware of their role?"

"Yes sir, although I'm not sure we'll be able to keep them under control, with how few of us that can maintain their sanity during the Ozaru state."

"With the hatred they feel for Freeza, it won't be directing them to attack him that will be the problem. It's getting them to stop that will be the hard part. Anything else to report Tomat?"

"No sir."

"Dismissed."

As the Saiyan saluted, and left the room to do one last check over everything, Vegeta sighed, hands rubbing at his temples, trying to ease the headache he felt approaching. Oddly, he felt relieved not being the King anymore. The fact that he had somebody higher on the food chain than him to send problematic people to was a blessing. 'Let Bardock deal with all their problems. He was always better with the average Saiyan than I was. All I have to do is oversee the military matters, admittedly that's still a lot of work, us being a race of warriors. Could do without the paperwork though.'

Vegeta's musings were interrupted by Bradock walking through the door. "Vegeta. It's time. Let's get going."

Vegeta breathed in deeply, preparing himself to face a being that was more like a god than a mortal. "Let's get this over with."

They took off, reaching their appointed positions at the head of the army. They turned and looked over the massive force, over 100,000 Saiyans gathered to defend their home, and to defeat the monster that's been looming over them for years.

Vegeta turned to face Bardock, "Are you going to say something? Shouldn't you rally the troops "King" Bardock?" Bardock shot him a look, annoyed by Vegeta's smirk.

"If you insist General jackass. Don't laugh at me dammit, I'm not good at this speech thing!" Grumbling to himself about obstinate generals, Bardock looked over the army, and pride swelled in his chest. This was what he was fighting for, why he fought Vegeta, why he's challenging Freeza. For his people. For his planet. For his family. 'Man, if they could see me now. Tora'd never let me hear the end of it."

The troops, chattering amongst themselves to try to calm their nerves, all stopped at Bardock's signal.

"Alright listen up! Freeza will arrive soon, here to betray us after we've been his loyal attack dogs for years. Everything we went through, all the pain and suffering we've endured doing his bidding, and what's our thanks? Extinction.  
I'm not gonna lie to you, it looks pretty bleak. We all know the stories of his strength. Even if we survive today, it doesn't look good for us. He has almost the entire galaxy under his thumb, and untold trillions in his own army. But you know what? Who was seen as the elites among his army? Which race carved a reputation for being the mightiest warriors ever known? The Saiyans! This is why he comes to destroy us! Freeza fears the Saiyans, fears what we could do if gathered together! And for the first time in almost 20 years, that's exactly what we are! As one, we will stand and force him to retreat!

We're not gonna roll over and die to this overgrown lizard! The tyranny of Freeza ends today! FOR THE SAIYANS!" The gathered force roared as one, some of them even chanting Bardock's name.

"Not bad. I'd have done better, but it could have been worse." Despite his words, Vegeta was grinning. He focused his energy, and with a grunt, the first of many artificial moons erupted into life over his palm.

Bardock followed suit, the technique relatively easy to learn, and saw hundreds light up in the palms of Saiyans.

"HOLD!"

Freeza's warship loomed over the horizon, the harbringer of their death, or, as Bardock preferred to think, the beginning of a new era for the Saiyans.

Reaching his empty hand up to his scouter, Bardock used the powerful zoom on it to see Freeza emerge from the ship.

"FIRE!" And as one, hundreds of artificial moons flew into the sky, and burst. At once, Bardock felt his blood pumping, the beast inside of him demanding to be unleashed. He didn't fight the transformation, focusing on retaining his sense of self, and hoping the crash-course in controling the Ozaru transformation Paragus gave the army would let some of them retain their minds.

As his limbs grew, his armor stretching rapidly to contain his growing form, and fur covering every inch of his body, he felt the power rushing into his being. As the transformation completed, Bardock roared his defiance towards the skies, the rest of the Ozaru's joining him. 'I wonder if he hears this, up on that seat of his.'

He looked at the rest of the army, and grinned savagely as he saw them as one looking at him, awaiting orders. He turned, and began charging the strongest blast he could, a ball of deep azure energy forming in his mouth, and he heard the others follow suit.

He felt it before he saw it, a small spark of ki coming from Freeza. 'He's charging something. Wait a second, I'm not wearing a scouter, how can I tell what he's doing? Questions for later.' He continued to charge his attack, the glow from it almost blinding. A moment later, it was finished

He lifted his hand, counted down from 3, and released his blast. As one, the Saiyans roared their defiance at the tyrant. 'Tank this, I dare you.'

(FREEZA'S SHIP)

'This has been a long time coming. I already wanted to wipe these filthy apes out of existance ages ago, Lord Bills just gave me the perfect excuse to get on with it. I'll keep the prince though. If only to break him, mould him to my will. He might prove most useful against Cooler, the prick. I can't believe his own father didn't even attempt to rescue him. Poor parenting, though what can I expect from a savage like a Saiyan?'

Freeza floated above his ship, seated in his hover-chair, "Because floating is for peasants Cooler that's why.", and looked over the doomed Planaet Vegeta. 'They don't even know. The only one who did, that Bardock, long dead. I wish they did know, almost. It's so much more fun when they know they're doomed, and yet can't do anything about it. Ah well. Time for fireworks.'

he raised his hand, index finger extended, and foucused his ki into a point right above the raised digit. A flash of light from the planet below however, soon blinded him for a moment and ruined his focus, the Supernova fading into nothing. "Argh! Zarbon! What the hell is that! I thought they didn't know I was coming!" Before his lieutenant could answer, he heard a sound. No, to call this a sound would be like calling the sun hot. The ocean wet. This was nothing more than the primal fury of the Saiyans.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Despite himself, despite knowing that there was none who could challenge him, Freeza hesitated for a moment, unwilling to admit to the flash of fear that ran down his spine. The light from a second ago gone, he saw thousands of small lights now, all grouped together.

And they were all aimed at him.

"Zarbon? If I don't have an answer as to what the hell that is, you will wish you shared their fate."

There was silence for a moment, and Zarbon's voice came through the scouter, filled with concern. "My Lord? That light, it's... it's... My Lord, it's the Saiyans. They knew. Somehow they knew, because that's at least 100,000 Great Apes down there. All with blasts charged. Orders?"

Freeza sat there in shock. "I'm sorry Zarbon, that sounded like you said they knew, and that there's over 100,000 giant monkeys."

"I did."

"Oh. Well, I suppose I should do something about that." And do something he did, the Supernova reigniting over his hand, growing in size slowly, but surely. 'I don't care how many monkeys you have, they can't stand up to this. Now die, like the pathetic mon

"MY LORD! INCOMING!" Zarbon screamed over the scouter, cutting Freeza's thoughts off. The light from the planet grew, and then began to move in his direction. Quickly. Freeza, panicking at the attack coming sooner than he expected, threw his Supernova at the beam, the attack not even at a tenth of it's full might.

The beam slammed against the Supernova, the impact of the attacks colliding knocking Freeza's ship out of it's orbit over the planet. As Freeza steadied himself against the shockwave, he looked at where the two attacks met, and his face contorted in fear. The blast soon punched through the hastily fired Supernova, hurtling towards him. He knew there was no avoiding it. As of this moment, his ship, and his crew, were dead. He had to act fast if he wanted to survive.

He started his transformation into his second form, never practicing transforming quickly, and as such only it was only just beginning when the Saiyans fury slammed into his ship.

THUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMM!

The explosion was enourmous, like a second sun over the planet. Bardock shielded his eyes, the shockwave from the impact crashing into the gathered army, bowling all of them over, the artificial moons fading away from the force. As the transformation ended, and Bardock felt the power leave him, he caught himself, and looked towards where Freeza's ship was. It wasn't there. Hope surged in his chest, did they do it? Were they safe?

Perhaps not, as he spotted a lone figure, falling towards the planet at terminal velocity, and burning up as it hurtled to the surface. It slammed into the ground, the crater at least 5 miles wide, and the impact deafening. Bardock slowly began making his way over, not knowing what he might see.

"Bardock! Where are you going" He turned and saw Vegeta flying towards him.

"I saw something slam into the ground over there. It looked like it fell from Freeza's ship. You coming?" Bardock didn't wait for an answer, taking off towards the crater, Vegeta cursing, but following.

As they neared, they spotted a body at the center of the crater, smoke rising off it's form, still white hot from entering the atmosphere. It was freeza, although he had changed, one arm being distorted, like it was halfway through abruptly growing, then suddenly stopped. It was the only limb left on his torso. His legs, gone. Only stumps remained, and the wound was cauterized, no blood leaking from it.

"You think he's dead?" Vegeta leaned forwards, and jumping back, an undignified sqauwk coming from him as Freeza took a ragged breath, unconscious. But alive.

"How. How did he live through that? That blast had to number in the millions with all of us firing at once." Bardock reached for a scouter from his pocket, activating it and scanning the unconscious Arcosian.

"Well. Good news is he's below a 10,000 power level, and even that's plummeting. Bad news is, so are me and you. Kill him now, or wait for him to wake up, then kill him?" The decision was taken from Bardock's hands, as Vegeta stepped forward, a blade of ki flashing into existence on his hand, and removing Freeza's head from his body.

"I say kill him now. And blast the body." He began charging, as Bardock shrugged and did the same. They fired, and Freeza's corpse was turned into ashes.

They stood there for a moment. Wondering about what happens next. Surely King Cold wouldn't take kindly to his son being killed. And even though Cooler's a prick, he'd use his brother's death as an excuse to kill them all.

"Vegeta. Go tell them it's over. He's dead. But we've declared war on the Planet Trade empire. Tell them that too. And get somebody to plant that bastard's head over the entrance to the palace. I want to look at it for years to come."

Vegeta stared at the remains of the monster that had taken everything from him, his son, his wife, even his pride. He looked at Bardock, nodded and took off towards the army.

Bardock stood there in the desert for a few minutes longer, pondering the future direction of the Saiyans, wondering how they were supposed to make a living now. Nobody would want to work with them, after all they've done in Freeza's name. Which led him to the choice that would shape the universe for centuries to come. The Saiyans were killers no longer. From here on out, they would be protectors. Getting the word out that they were to be hired as such, and annoucing Freeza's death at their hands without Cold falling on them was going to be tricky. Oh well. He asked for this the day he challenged Vegeta.

'At least Gine and Kakarot are safe on Earth. I'll have to go fetch Raditz within the week. Can't leave him out there by himself, not with the target that was just painted on hiss back.' And he turned, and blasted off towards his army, and a new dawn for the Saiyan race.

(EARTH, MOUNT PAOZU)

'So, recapping how Bardock has obliterated Canon, he's King of the Saiyans. He's challenging Freeza, and he sent Gine, I need to start calling her Mom eventually, with me to Earth. It's been 2 months since we landed, and we've already met Grandpa Gohan. He's been as kind as I thought he'd be, accepting Gine's, Mom's, story without asking too many questions. I'd find that strange, but the leader of the world is a Dog. Strange is relative here. I'll have to start learning how to control ki soon though.'

Gine was off in the woods, hunting for food again, not wanting to eat Gohan out of house and home, and we've come close to doing so already. Not again. They learned their lesson about leaving me alone in the kitchen for even a moment. I get hungry, sue me. They had another argument over my name, Gohan's reasoning being that I should adopt an Earth name to blend in. Gine was nothing but stubborn though, and refused. If it's good enough for Bardock, it's good enough for Earth. I'm still gonna go by Goku. I am not being called a carrot for the rest of my life. Or lives, since the Dragon Balls are a thing. Questions for later.

Have managed to avoid falling in a ravine though, so I've done something.

CHAPTER 7: END.

What, you'd think I was going to let Freeza live? Pffft. He's dead. As far as they know anyway. Arcosioans can survive almost anything. They're going to regret leaving his head intact. Now the challenge is coming up with reasons as to why Cold won't just mudstomp them into the ground. There will be a timeskip after this, with abridged details of what happens during said time skip. I appreciate the reviews y'all leave, I really do. It's reason for me to keep going. As always, Read and Review, Green Man out.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball or anything related to it. Future Gohan would have been the one to come back.

'Characters thoughts'

"Characters speaking"

AN: Time skip this chapter, because writing for all the years Gine and Goku spend at Gohan's would burn me out quickly. Onwards!

CHAPTER 8: START

Over the 12 years we spent at Mt. Paozu, only 3 major events happened. I had avoided the ravine incident. I don't know how that would turn out given my adult mind in a childs body, although it might have silenced my Saiyan side, or at least supressed it. Mom was finally able to teach me to fly, and boy did that take forever. I was able to get the other points of ki control down fairly quickly, but flight eluded me until the 11th year of our stay on Earth. My Saiyan body was easily learning the teachings of Gine and Gohan. Thank God, because I wasn't the most coordinated of people back in my old life.

And the discovery of the 4-star ball in a pterodactyl nest. The mother was not happy. How Gohan managed to calm her I don't know. But I avoided that part of the mountain for years. Freaking pterodactyls. Go be a hairless bird thing somewhere else, there's good fish around your nest.

Much to Moms chagrin, I had indeed picked Goku for my name. She was even more upset with me when I took Gohan's surname as my own, wailing that her precious baby was contaminated by these weakling humans. It was funny for the first day or so, but when she kept sulking around, Gohan threatened to stop cooking for her. This was tantamount to depriving a man in a desert of an oasis. Gohan could cook. I mean he was able to take the endless amounts of giant fish and game around here and somehow turn it into, to me anyway, a 5-star meal.

While Mom was beating fighting skills into me, she was also teaching me how to get past the weakness of the tail. By virtue of gripping it painfully, and leaving me in a forest full of animals that very much wanted to kill me. I guess by Saiyan standards that was good parenting, but I was 5 at the time. Only after I trained the weakness away, and send half the animal population running from the crazed monkey child, did she reveal herself to have been hiding nearby.

Which explains why I didn't have to deal with some of the mountains more dangerous creatures. Everything around us learned very quickly to stay away from the crazed woman living with the old man and tiny child. I swear even the mountain itself was scared of her. Gohan may be the only being in existence who isn't.

All things come to an end however, and evetually the plot found me. Or rather, it slammed into me, and broke it's top of the line, state of the art capsule motorcycle. Great. Now I have to deal with Bulma. God help me, I don't see how Vegeta didn't go crazy living with her. I've known her 2 minutes and I'm ready to leave her here.

"Are you even listening to me?! You trashed my bike! You owe me big time buster!"

"I didn't trash anything. You ran into me, and the bike broke. Watch where you're going next time maybe, cause whatever you hit isn't going to catch you when you're sent flying." And on that note, I turned and started walking back to the house, wondering if I could get Mom to deal with her. I don't have the patience for this.

"Where are you going? You can't just leave me here! I'm a poor defenseless damsel, I'll be eaten by something! You broke my bike, you should escort me to safety!" She's lucky I know she grows out of this. It's lasting until she does that's the trick.

"Escort you where? West City? I'm not going that far without a good reason. My house is this way, come on. And you are not defenseless, I saw that gun of yours. Although, that pea shooter isn't going to kill anything around here."

She stammered out denial of her weapon, insisting the was defenseless, until I suddenly blurred my hand in her vague direction, and out came the gun. It's such a rush being fast enough to sidestep bullets, even cooler to catch them in your bare hands. Thank God Gohan was able to pound restraint into me, otherwise I might have gone mad with power. Until Mom smacked me upside the head that is.

"W-what kind of monster are you?" She began backing away in fear, and I didn't blame her. A small child, able to casually dodge bullets, let alone catch them without even a scratch? I'd be scared too.

"The kind of monster that would rather you live through the night. Are you coming? We have a spare bed at the house, you can sleep in my room, I'll sleep outside for tonight." I saw her brain quickly consider and dismiss options in seconds, logic managing to punch through her emotions, and rationalizing that I was less dangerous than whatever's out here.

"Fine. I'll go with you to your house ok? But you better not try anything you hear? Even though you've never seen a woman as attractive as me before, you better be a gentleman!"

"Brats aren't my type anyways, you'll be fine." Ignoring her outrage, I turned and began the trek back to the house, hearing the boomf of her bike returning to it's capsulized state. Note to self: get a capsule container that works like a pez dispenser, only with senzu. Other note to self: obtain senzu.

Before too long, we arrived at the house, and I called out my arrival with a guest, ignoring said guest's shock at the massive fish that put Jaws to shame, speared over a bonfire. Mom was hungry again. She's gonna hunt those things to extincion at this pace.

"Mom, we have a guest. We still have that spare bed tucked away somewhere?"

"Should be somewhere in the closet, ask Gohan. And what guests would we get up, oh. Oh." I saw the grin spread across her face, and saw where her mind was going. If I don't head her off now, I'm screwed.

"Mom she tried to shoot me after her top of the line, state of the art capsule mototcyle," I said, words drowning in sarcasm that would make Alan Rickman proud, "broke on me. Because watching where your going isn't in style here."

Bulma fumed behind me, but her anger was drowned by her sudden sizing up of Mom. Bulma was scoping out the woman she'd have to spend time around, Mom was thinking grandchildren. And cheering internally at me finally showing interest in the opposite sex. Or maybe murder, this interloper did shoot at her son after all, even if it wasn't a threat. A vision of a adult ChiChi and Gine filled my mind, and suddenly dying seems like a good idea.

Bulma broke the ice, in deference to the alpha female, and went straight to what she came for. "My humblest apologies ma'am, I am very grateful for your son's escort, and I would ask that I graciously be allowed to stay for the night, untilI can fix my ride in the morning, and I'll be out of your hair. But, if I may impose, do you happen to have a small orange ball with stars on it?" The acting wasn't bad, I'd give her a 7.5. Could use more work, but pretty good, showing a lot of promise.

I saw Moms eyes widen, all joking vanished from her face. The Dragon Balls were not a laughing matter. "We do. Why. The Dragon Balls are not a toy, and I won't let them fall into the hands of a child like you." After the explanation of what they were, Mom took it upon herself to guard this one with her life, the other six didn't matter if you don't have the seventh.

Bulma bristeled at the insult, but managed to compose herself for a moment, the perfect boyfriend story going out the window. For now anyway. "I wanted to show my father they exist. He doesn't believe the stories of their wish-granting abilities, and I wanted to prove to him that the legends are true. I swear to bring them back here before using them if you don't trust me." Bulma was nervous, the seriousness in which Mom was exuding giving her second thoughts about her adventure.

I walked over, intent on somehow getting her to let Bulma take it. If she doesn't, then everything I know is useless, and I'd like at least the Dragon Ball part of my life follow canon as much as possible. Z is going to be enough of a cluster.

"Mom just give her the ball. I'll go with her to make sure she doesn't misuse them. Please." She stared at me, seeing this was important to me for some reason, mulling it over. I was ashamed of myself, but I did give her the puppy eyes. She wasn't too good at ignoring those. They weren't even worth considering for Gohan.

"Fine. You can have it. My son will go with you to ensure you don't misuse them. If you don't like it, you don't get it." And she turned and went back to her fish, roasting it over the fire, before tearing a piece off and eating it. Dammit save some for me, I'm hungry.

Bulma seemed a little upset over having to take mw tih her, but that was soon forgotten when I came out with the 4-star ball. When she reacehd for it, I pulled it away and stuffed it in my pocket. "Uh no, I'll hold onto this for now. How many of these do you have already?"

"Two. I found the 2-star ball in my basement, and I made a radar that detects the energy they give off, and then I found the Five-star ball over in the North Valley. If you're as strong as I think you are, this is gonna be easy." She pulled a capsule out of a puch on her belt, and popped it open, revealing a case holding the Two and Five-star balls. She shook the case slightly, waiting for me to put the Four-star in there, and I did reluctantly, before grabbing the case and it's capsule.

"If we're doing this, I'm keeping them on me. I'm the fighter here, they're safer if I hold onto them. Now how do you work thse things?" She gave me a look, and just pointed at the button top of the capsule. "Oh. Well. I feel like an idot."

"You should go with that feeling." I looked over at Mom, already half finished with the fish, and bolted over to eat some before it's all gone.

"Save some for me!"

"Hell no! Go catch your own!"

I did catch this one remember?" And before she could argue further, I dug in, the fish soon vanishing between the two of us. Bulma looked mildy disgusted, Gohan walking out of the woods, staring at the scene, and walking inside the house, muttering something about it's not fair.

Later that night, after we all went to bed, I laid there on top of the house, staring at the stars. The moon won't be full for a few weeks, so I should enjoy this while I can. 'I wonder if they won all those years ago. Did they fend of Freeza, or is the Saiyan race down to just the nine of us, the Prince, Nappa and Raditz, me and Gine, Tarble, Turles, and Broly and Paragus. And if they did, what does that mean for Namek? Who's going to become the first Super Saiyan? Cell will happen evtually, and Buu is somewhere here on Earth, and Bills, actually let's not think about Bills. I wonder though, will the events of GT happen? If I have to be a kid again, I'm gonna be upset.'

I laid there for a while, trying to plan out as much as I could, and sleep evetually took me, albeit fitfully.

(Morning, Day of departure.)

Sleeping on the roof was a bad idea. Not only was a crick in my back annoying, I rolled off the roof, and crashed to the ground, apperantly right after Bulma asked where I was. "Stop laughing, it's not that funny." Even I didn't buy it, fighting a grin. "Is your bike fixed?"

"Yep. Good to go!" She had swapped out her dress for a blue tank top with a pair of jeans, realizing a dress was a bad idea if I was gonna sit behind her on the bike.

"Goku. Be careful on this journey. Remember what I taught you. And be nice to the turtle, he's more dangerous than he looks." Gohan giving me a warning about Roshi that I probably needed. Years of torture, she called it "training", with mom had made me somewhat full of myself. We didn't have a scouter, but Gohan had taught us how to sense ki. And Mom aside, I was pretty sure I'm stronger than everything. Which means, in theory, smooth sailing until King Piccolo. Wait. I forgot about Tao dammit. Tien is gonna be fun as well. I might want to learn the Kikoho if I can.

Mom walked over to me, knelt down, damn my height, and game me a hug. Earth's really softened her up. I'm not complaining, but she still has that drill instructor side to her. "Be safe ok? You still need to meet your father and brother when they get here. And DON'T look at the moon. You still can't control the transformation very well."

"I won't. If I do, it's as a last resort I promise. Don't be to mean too gramps ok?" She laughed at that. I honestly don't think Gohan noticed her mean side. "I'll be back."

My goodbyes over with, I turned to look at Bulma, who was watching with a small smile on her face. "You ready"

"Yep. Just waiting for you to finish up. Let's get this show on the road!" And at that, we climbed aboard the repaired bike, me having to grip her waist because of my height, stupid shortness, and we were off. The house fading from our view quickly, Bulma navigated the twists and turns of the mountain at speed, much to my protests. They fell on deaf ears however, and I sighed and tightened my grip. This is gonna be a long ride down.

CHAPTER 8: END.

And so it begins. I'll try to avoid Bulma being too much of a brat at the start, but if she's not one at all, is she really Bulma? Goku's stronger than he was in canon, by a pretty huge margin, but he won't steamroll everything like he thinks he will. You'll see. Every now and then I'll cut to Bardock and the Saiyans in their war against Cold's empire, but for the most part they'll stay out of the limelight. Thank you for the reviews, they giv me more motivation to keep going, aside from the fun I'm having doing this. I still kind of need a beta though, if anybody's interested, or knows somebody. Read and Review, Green Man out.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own crap. If I did, I'd probably be at the All-Star game.

'Characters thoughts'

"Characters speaking"

AN: The theme naming, obviously aside from those already named, and flashes of inspiration, will not be used for everybody. I'm not good with names to begin with, but I'll do my best with this. If anybody has any good suggestions, let me know.

CHAPTER 9: START

Scratch that remark about the ride down being long. It was short, and filled with rocks, dinosaur attacks and a screaming banshee named Bulma. Not that I could blame her, I was screaming too. Around 15 minutes after we left the house, Bulma swerved to avoid a baby pterodactyl. The mother being the same one I'd been avoiding. She moved her nest it seems. Great. As she attacked, Bulma shrieked, loudly next to my ears, my poor ears, and floored it. This worked at first. Until we had to turn, or go straight down a ravine. Bless her heart, Bulma tried, and almost made it. However almost only counts in horseshoes and explosives. We went over the edge.

"GOKU! DO SOMETHING! I'M TOO PRETTY TO DIE!"

"I'd argue that statement about you being pretty actually. But fine." I hopped off the bike, and landed next to it, skidding down the side of the ravine. "You better get a good grip, because this is gonna be tricky." I then picked up the bike, Bulma and all, and started surfing down the rocks. It. Was. Great. Even though the logical thing to do was fly, this was so much cooler. And I was having the time of my life, whooping and laughing my way down, Bulma screaming something about sanity, which I've never had to begin with.

I did jump off the little avalanche after not even 30 seconds, and flew to the other side. Where I came face-to-snout with a T-Rex. Picture that dinosaur that chases Gohan in the DBZ intro, and you have this thing. "Oh. I'll uh, be leaving now. So sorry." And I bolted, bike and Bulma still held over my head, and I recreated the intro, just with more screaming. And no music. I've never ran so fast in my life, flying down the hills almost literally, and jumping entire ravines. It took us 2 minutes to get down the mountain after that, and I've never seen anybody as grateful as Bulma to finally have solid ground under her feet.

"Oh sweet, stable ground. I don't deserve something as fine as you. Don't you EVER, do something like that again."

Would you rather die? Because if that's what you want, I can let it happen." If looks could kill, I don't think Shenron would be able to bring me back. As she laid there on the ground, recovering from her ordeal, I heard a voice pleading for help around the bend in the road.

"I'll be right back. Stay here." Without waiting for her reply, and turned the corner, and saw a massive bear, walking on it's hind legs like a human, and dressed in armor that looked vaugely similar to what soldiers from ancient China would wear. Or Japan, I don't know I was never very good with history hush. And at it's feet, a familiar looking turtle. Which meant we'd be meeting Roshi soon.

"If you would quiet your sniveling, I'll make this quick turtle. Or maybe not, I haven't had some fun in a long, long time." The bear grinned, showing his razor sharp teeth, and pulled back his sword and thrust downwards, intent on punching through the turtle's shell. Only to stab staright through the air, and drive his sword up to it's hilt in the ground. He looked around in confusion, only spotting me after I set the turtle down behind the rock with Bulma.

"Stay here, you're safe now. I'll take care of him." And I turned around, marching towards my first fight in this world.

"What the hell you'd go and do that for? I was just about to make my signature turtle stew! I haven't had sea-turtle stew in forever!" He pulled his sword from the ground, a wicked looking scimitar, and shifted into a stance, sword held high over his head to take full advantage of his great strength. "Unless, you're taking his place as my meal. It's been some time since I've had human stew." He started licking his lips in anticipation, and the notion of me getting eaten by a weakling like him was absurd.

"I heard a cry for help. I answered. I'm a nice guy like that," I ignored Bulma's furious mutterings to the contrary, " and besides, big guy like you, tiny little turtle like him? It wouldn't even be a snack. You're not hunting for food, you're hunting for sport. Go hunt something that's over-populating the forests." As I said this, I reached for one of the few things I took with me. The Power Pole. The good ole stretchy stick. Ah the things I got up to with this, I still remember that one time whe-

"GOKU MOVE!" I saw the sword coming down, and just held the pole horizontally above my head, and it stopped the strike cold. I don't know who was more surprised, Bulma or the bear. Probably Bulma. I jerked my hand to the right, throwing him off balance and moved, jumping up and bashing him in the cheek with the pole, and he went down instantly, falling to the ground with a loud thud.

That was sad. Nice sword though. "Hey Bulma, do you think those capsules could store this thing? Might be worth something to somebody." I knelt down and inspected the sword, it seemed to be of finer quality than you'd think with some random bandit using it.

Bulma and the turtle came out from behind the rock, surprise evident on both their faces, but I could tell Bulma's already starting to get used to my brand of insanity. "They should be able to store this sword, but do you really think it'll be worth something?"

I shrugged, putting the power pole back into it's sheath. "I don't know. It might, there's people who will pay tons of money for something the average person would find useless. Just because they think it's rare, or because they can."  
The memory of all those stupid people on eBay bidding on pennies, or pieces of bread that supposedly had the Face of Jesus.

"Oh thank you, thank you so very much! I don't know what I would have done if you didn't show up! What's your name son?"

"Son Goku, and she's Bulma. Long way from the ocean. What are you all the way out here for?

"Well I went out to gather mushrooms one day, and I got lost. I've been trying to make my way back to the island where I live for a long time now." Why a turtle would need mushrooms I don't know.

"Do you know how long you've been looking for these mushrooms?" Bulma asked, kneeling down to examine his shell for any wounds, while I started dragging the bear's unconscious form into the woods.

"Around a year, give or take a couple months." What. How can you be looking for mushrooms for an entire year? What kind of mushrooms are that important

"I'm sorry, did you say a year? How can you be looking around for mushrooms for a hundred years?" Oh Lord we're thinking along the same lines. A sure sign of the end times.

"Well you see now, I am a turtle, so I'm not the swiftest of creatures. I found the mushrooms, but I kind of forgot the way I came, so I've been wandering around ever since. If the two of you could help me out some more, and get me to the ocean, there's a reward in it for you."

"Goku! Guess what?" She turned around, a big grin on her face. That was trouble.

"We're helping the turtle aren't we." I began resigning myself to this. I was going to help him anyway, but there's doing it because it should be done, and then there's Bulma.

"Yep!" She was way too excited about this.

"And by we, you mean I'm gonna have to haul him to the water, while you drive your bike in peace." She didn't even think twice before nodding. I sighed, and moved to lift him onto my back. "Bulma, do you at least know which way the ocean is?"

She pulled out the Dragon Radar from her pocket, how that fit in there with how tight her jeans are I don't know, before pressing a button and a semi-3D map appeared on the screen, the ocean being around 90 miles due west. Great.

"Hey look! Another Dragon Ball is in that direction! 4 down already! This is gonna be easy from here on out!" Oh my dear ignorant Bulma, if you only knew.

The turtle looked at her in surprise, "Dragon Balls? How do you know about the Dragon Balls?", and and I walked my way over to the radar to let him look at the map. "Hey! That's where I need to go. I'm returning at last!"

She looked from the radar to the turtle, "You know about the Dragon Balls? Me and Goku here are trying to gather all seven so I can get my wish granted.", and she went over to her bike, and started the engine. "We'll talk more when we get there. Goku! How much am I gonna need to slow down so you can keep up?"

"I won't know till we get going. You have any rope?", and out came a capsule, with a sturdy looking length of it. I grabbed what I needed, carefully cut it, and returned it to the case, Bulma putting it back in a compartment on her bike. I tied him carefully onto my back, avoiding areas where it could cut into him. "Thanks. Let's get going."

And off we went, Bulma not having to slow down even at all it seemed, and I felt the rush of running at high-speed again, something I don't think I'll ever get used to. We couldn't make any small talk, the roar of the wind in our ears removing that option, so the only thing to do was keep moving. I had to run behind her though, what with her not only having the map, but also a windshield. I'd already had one fly go down my throat, I'm not eager to repeat the experience.

After an hour or so of travel, we finally made it to the beach, and I was able to fianlly rest my legs after putting the turtle down. "The rope didn't hurt you did it?" He shook his head, and I was relieved. Don't need Roshi mad at me before I even meet him, and I want to hurt the turtle even less.

Speaking of Roshi, I spotted his island off in the distance, and prepared myself for the meeting. 'Is he really gonna be that perverted? Bulma's not gonna be happy about this. Hell I'm not happy about this.'

Out of curiousity, I reached out, intent on measuring my strength against his. At first glance, it seemed like I was the stronger of us, by a small enough margin that wouldn't matter if we fought, and before I could scan any deeper, he clamped down on his ki, and I couldn't get anything after that.

"Huh. This might be fun for me. He's about as strong as I am, probably stronger at his max actually. Maybe he'll train me when this is over with."

"You say that like you want to fight him almost." Her eyes narrowed, and she gave me a look. "You do want to fight him don't you." I grinned, letting that be my answer. "What am I gonna do with you Son.", she said, shaking her head in exasperation. Any further discussion on this topic was interrupted by Turtle and Roshi's arrival, Roshi having rode him on the way here. As the old master approached me and Bulma, I noticed the 3-star ball hanging from a pendant around his neck. Getting that isn't going to make Bulma very happy.

"So you're the one who helped my Turtle are you? I have to thank you for that. I'd have gone to fetch him myself, but if I'm away from my island for too long it'll sink without me keeping it afloat. Can't bring him back home if I let it get washed away now can I?"

"You're not at the island now though. You're not worried about it sinking?"

"It takes around 3 or 4 months without me being there for it to sink. I don't know if I could have found and returned in time. But I'm getting sidetracked. Here, your reward for helping him." And with that, he turned to the sky, and he gathered his power while still keeping it concealed from me.

"Come to me, Immortal Phoenix!"

"Uh, the phoenix died remember? Tainted birdseed." The turtle looked as confused by that as I did.

'SO it wasn't immortal then was it. Or was it the can't die from age immortality?'

"Oh right. Well than this will be useful to you on whatever journey you're on."

"NIMBUS!", he shouted, and I saw a cloud shoot down from the heavens and come to a stop in front of him. Would I be able to ride it though? I'm not pure like Goku, and would I even need it? I can fly after all.

"This is the legendary Nimbus Cloud, only the pure of heart can ride it. Let me show you." He leaped as if he was going to ride it, and fell straight through it. As he got to his feet, ignoring Bulma's laughter, "W-well you see now I've gotten old, I'm not as pure-hearted as I used to be!"

"Those dirty magazines you look at don't help with that!"

Roshi sputtered denials, claiming the usual reads-them-for-the-articles excuse. Nervously, I hopped on it, and to my surprise I stood on it without falling. 'Really? Cool! But wait, I don't think I qualified for being pure of heart like Goku did. Is it because I'm only out to keep the Dragon Balls from being misused? Or to keep this planet safe? Questions for later.' I wondered if that later would ever come. I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

"Hey thanks old timer! Where'd you get this cloud anyway?"

"Old-timer!? I'm the legendary Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi! You've never heard of me!?" Bulma shook her head, but I nodded.

"Yeah. I've heard about you grom my grandpa. He said you're one of the strongest men alive, and you where there when King Piccolo's rampage was ended." Roshi's face instantly lost all humor, and it was like we could feel the weight of his 300 years of living pressing down on us.

"Boy. Who told you this. Who are you to mention that demon to me?", He growled out, and suddenly his power wasn't restrained, and I felt with a little fear that it was indeed stronger than mine.

"My grandpa told me! He said you taught him. His name is Gohan." At that, Roshi's anger faded, and the power vanished as quickly as it appeared.

"Gohan's grandson? About time he settled down and started a family. You should have lead with that."

"I'm sorry Master Roshi," I said bowing at the waist, "it wasn't my intention to upset you. My name is Son Goku, and this is Bulma. We're looking for the 7 Dragon Balls. That's one of them right there. May we please have it?"

"Oh you mean this old thing? I found it on the ocean floor years ago. Tried to pawn it off, but nobody would buy it. What's in it for me if I let you have it?" He said, leering at Bulma. And this is where I make my exit. Bulma's attractive sure, but I don't think she's appreciate me looking.

"I'll let the two of you haggle over the ball. I'm gonna try out the Nimbus. Be right back!" And off I went, zooming over the ocean, kicking up waves as I picked up speed. This was awesome! So much faster than I can fly! As I went about doing every trick and crazy stunt I could think of, spiraling up and back down, figure 8s and flips that would have made a person green from watching, I heard a smack coming from where I left Bulma and Roshi. I sped back over to find Bulma walking back to her bike, blushing furiously and Roshi with an imprint of a palm over his face.

"You get the ball? What happened?" She didn't say anything, wordlessly handing me the ball and growling about perverted old hermits under her breath. Best not to press her about it, as I tucked it away in it's case.

"C'mon. Next one's this way." And at that, she sped off, leaving me sitting there on the cloud, dust in my face from her departure. I shrugged and zoomed after her, catching up quickly.

As much as I liked to gripe about her, I didn't want her in a bad mood, so I moved closer to her. " hey Bulma. Which is faster? My cloud, or your bike?" She looked at me, and I saw a smirk grow across her face.

"Don't complain when I leave mor dust in your face monkey boy."

"I resemble that remark. You're gonna lose though.", I said with a smirk of my own. And off we went, Bulma soon pressing her bike to speeds I hadn't seen yet, expertly bobbing and weavin around anything in her way. She's better than I thought she was, did she help test that thing?

Not to be outdone, I willed the Nimbus to match her speed, and I pulled ahead slightly by virtue of being able to go in a straight line over everything. She caught up quickly, going even faster still. On it went, whenever one of us would pull ahead the other would come right back and even it up.

"This is the most fun I've had years!" She shouted, as she pulled slightly ahead again. "Gonna leave you behind Goku!"

"Yeah right, I'm gonna make you eat my... BULMA LOOK OUT!"

She didn't even look, slamming on the brakes, sending her bike into a skid and doing verything she could to slow herself as fast as possible. It worked this time, stopping her inches over from the edge of a cliff. I reached down, pulled her out of the bike and up onto the cloud. "Capsule the bike, I'll float us down ok?" She swallowed hard, after seeing how close it was, and with shaking hands returned the bike to it's place in her case. Heh. Rhyming.

She held onto me like her life depended on it, which it kinda did, seeing as how she'd fall staright through Nimbus if I wasn't keeping a tight hold of her. As we descended and she got a look at how far the drop was, she buried her face into my neck. Hello awkward city, as I fought the blush creeping up my face. Damn hormones, why do I have to go through puberty again. I adjusted my grip, moving my hands to her waist so I could see past her hair, and foucused on nothing else but getting us down there alive.

We landed, and I hopped off, still holding her. As I set her down, I tryed to lighten the mood a little. "So this means I win right?" She gave me a look, fighting a smile despite it.

"Just this once. I'll win next time, when there's no cliffs to cheat for you, right when I was about to blow your doors off too."

"It doesn't have any doors Bulma.", and I paused after I said that, realizing what I just did. "I'll go drown myself now for missing that." She laughed, ruflling my hair as we made our way to the town that was at the bottom of the "cheating" cliff. At least I got her to smile.

After about 10 minutes, we reached the town. But there wasn't anybody here. The place looked like it's occupants just up and left. "Is there anybody even in this place? The silence is kind of creeping me out." There was people inside the town, but all of them were inside the houses. I told Bulma as such, and moved to knock on a door.

"Hey, anybody home? Open up, I know you're in there." Nothing. Mildly annoyed, I knocked again, harder this time. "Open up please, we're looking for somebody around here, I'd like to ask some questions!" Nothing. Again. Welp. They had their chance. "Don't say I didn't warn you!" And I pulled the door off it's hinges, an axe blurring down at my head, and unlike the sword from a couple hours ago, I didn't even bother to block this one.

Bulma screamed at the sight of the axe, and that soon died as she saw it break on my head. 'I knew he was strong but this, this is, what kind of kid is he?' I sighed, and reached for the broken axe head.

"I'm supposed to be the one axing the questions here, not you." The groan could be heard by a deaf man. "I'm here all week Bulma! Anyway, why are you all cooped up inside here? There's nothing dangerous around this place for miles."

As my would-be killer began to stammer out a reply, I saw something blur out from behind a building. Bulma hadn't noticed, and she wouldn't, until this thing stopped anyways. And stop it did, face down in the dirt with my boot on it's back. I'll say it again. Super speed is the best.

"Alright you got 30 seconds to start talking. Give me answers or she'll get them from you, and I'm the nice one." The man turned his head to face me, shock clear on his face.

"Y-you saw me? But nobody's that fast! There's nobody who can outpace Oolong the Terrible!" Oh. Oh right, Oolong, kinda forgot about him. As he started his spiel about him being great and might, armies quake in fear, the usual, I tried to remember the plot for this section. Oh right, village girls kidnapped, and he's extorting the parents because they have him wrapped around they're fingers and asking for more expensive stuff all the time.

"Yeah yeah, where're you keeping the villagers you've taken captive? In that mansion up there right? If you're gonna kidnap people, at least make it less obvious come on." Bulma didn't appreciate my commentary. I hold my villains to a higher standard thank you very much.

"The Great Oolong doesn't bow to some kid!" Before he could start again I applied pressure with my foot. A cloud of smoke appeared with a boomf, not unlike the capsules actually, and I saw his true form. That of a small pig in a dark dress shirt and matching pants, and the pointed shoes that were so popular holy crap do you people not have toes. Either his 5 minutes were up, or pain could end his transformation early.

"This is the mighty Oolong? Please. You don't happen to have a small gold ball with red stars on it do you?"

"I don't have anything like that! I'd have sold it by now!"

"Bulma?"

Bulma finished speaking with the villagers, all of them outside now and surprised to find their oppressor was a small pig. She fished out the radar and located it quickly. "It's in one of these houses Son. How'd you know this place wasn't deserted anyway?

I brought Oolong to his feet, pulling the legnth of rope I still had on me from earlier, and binding him tight with it. "I sensed them as we got close to the village. It's a really useful skill, I could teach you sometime if you'd like. You guys ready to get your kids back?" A loud yes was thundered back at me, and with a grin, we were off. Oolong "graciously volunteering" to lead the way, and when we arrived to the stairs and got past the big fancy door to his mansion, really fought the urge to kick it down, the parents of the kidnapped children surged past, expecting joy and tears from their kids.

Nope. They were all lounging around the very fancily, and expensive, decorated living area of the mansion. They were watching tv like there wasn't anything wrong in the world. One of them noticed Oolong at the front, and asked if he had anything new for them.

"You see what I've had to deal with? These girls are spoiled rotten! I've had my hands full getting everything they asked for! I didn't have the time to do anything to them!" The parents were glad to have their kids back, even if they were more spoiled than they used to be.

"You do realize I'm gonna punish you anyway for kidnapping these girls, even if they're fine right?" He sighed, and bowed his head.

"Yeah yeah, go ahead and string me up somewhere deserted. I won't be doing this crap again. Way too much of a hassle. Expensive too."

"String you up? Nah that's way too light. I have a better idea. You're coming with us."

"What!? With you two? I don't even know what kind of crap you two are getting into, why would I want to go with you!" I merely shifted my gaze to the parents, some of them glaring at Oolong, violence being promised in their gaze.

Well you're always welcome to stay here and take your chances with them. They won't be as nice as I am though."

"Don't really have a choice then do I? Fine I'll tag along. Don't expect me to be fighting though! I'm only good at shape-shifting!" As I slowly untied Oolong, Bulma came bouncing up to us, the 6-star ball held proudly in her hands.

"Only the 1 and 7 stars left! Then we'll see if the legends true! And, wait, Goku why did you untie him?" she asked, not happy with my unbinding of the shape-shifter.

"Well I gave him an option. Either his punishment is he's coming with us, or I'd leave him to the villagers non-existent mercy. He decided to come with us." I sadi, as I finished untying him.

"And you made this decision without asking me? I should have a say in this Goku." Not happy.

"If he tries anything or runs away I'll dump him back here. But his shape-shifting could come in handy. They were gonna kill him otherwise."

She didn't seem that concerned by that though. "Fine. You're responsible for him, you hear? We'll spend the night here, then set off tomorrow morning. I've had enough near heart attacks for one day."

(SAIYAN KINGDOM, 12 AF)

"Corporal Kraut, Report"

"Sir. Our forces have managed to drive off Cui and his soldiers from Planet Yardrat, sustaining medium casualties, and are currently assiting in the repairs to the Yardrat infastructure. They are graciously helping our wounded, and are offering special training as thanks. I have selected Kale and Cabba to be the envoys between us, seeing as they have the best relationship with them as of this moment. We should be done on Yardat with 72 hours sir."

"Thank you Corporal. Anythging else you would like to include?" The both of them knew that was an order, not a question.

"No sir. I'll report in if anything happens, and shortly before we leave."

"Good. Dismissed."

"Sir!" Tomat cut the feed from his scouter and removed it from his ear, letting out a sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Cold was getting more daring as of late. Sending his troops into Saiyan-Alliance territory, testing them, goading them to attack him head on. It was suicide without a Super Saiyan, and despite their best efforts, neither King Bardock or Chief General Vegeta had managed it yet. The united force wasn't doing too badly in the war all things considered though. Given that the Cold Empire still had Cooler, who could only be brought to a standstill if both the King and General took the field against him, they had managed to deal heavy blows to Cold-ruled territory, and protect their own as well.

Tomat leaned back in his chair, and wondered when his life got so complicated. It was so much easier when all he had to worry about was not dying on this mission to this planet. He didn't miss the planet wiping though. He wondered if his peers felt the same.

It's been a long 12 years of war. The entire galaxy was shocked at the reports of Freeza's death, King Cold declaring war on the Saiyans immedately, and Bardock somehow drumming up an alliance with numerous systems against his empire. Overall sentiment towards the Saiyans still wasn't good, and they still had to deal with occasional attacks from the people they were protecting, but compared to the hatred and fear they used to get, that was nothing.

The combined military between the Saiyan Kingdom and The Galacic Alliance however, was a different story. The average soldier's opinion of the Saiyans shot through the roof after fighting with them. Having a squadmate that is sometimes the only reason anybody survives the current fight will do that. The opinions towards the Saiyans was slowly but surely changing. Never faster than when King Bardock And General Vegeta fought Cooler and his Armored Squadron to a standstill, Vegeta swiftly disposing of the elite fighters and soon assisting Bardock in the fight against Cold's eldest. Had he been able to focus for even a few seconds and summon his full strength, they wouldn't stand a chance. Thy never gave him those precious few seconds.

"Major Tomat. How's the situation on Yardrat?" Tomat's eyes shot open, his little nap interrupted at the sound of his King's voice.

"Sir! I-I wasn't sleeping sir! I had just closed my eyes for a moment I swear!... You waited for me to relax for a second didn't you?"

"Guilty as charged. Got to find my amusement somewhere. Well?"

"Cui's forces have been beaten back, and we sustained medium casualties. Corporal Kraut and his men are staying behind to aid them in repairs and to recieve medical attention to their wounded, and they'll be off within 72 hours. He said something about special training, but Yardrat hasn't been known for producing fighters, so I imagine it must be some sort of secret technique."

"I see. How's Raditz been doing? I know he's under Paragus' command, and I heard he's rising through the ranks."

"Yes sir, he's recently been promoted to Private First Class. He's also mastered the art of sensing ki, so we'll have to remove the Raditz scouter budget at last." It's not that he went out of his way to break them. But if Raditz was with 50 feet of a scouter, let alone wearing one, something always went wrong. Whether they'd simply break, or refuse to turn on, or malfunction in ways never seen before, Raditz became legend for his ability to break scouters. At least the Empire's soldiers fell under that effect as well.

"Damn shame. I enjoyed teasing him about it." The smile on Bardock's face was replaced with a concerned look. "They haven't found Earth yet, have they?" Unknown to the planet were he sent Kakarot and Gine all those years ago, one of Bardock's few demands for the alliance with the parts of the galaxy united against Cold was a small fleet to guard Earth's solar system. They had balked at first, only to swiftly approve the idea after the effect Saiyans had in the war.

"No sir, Earth remains unaware and as safe as it always has. Are we really sending Prince Tarble there?" Bardock had allowed Tarble to keep his rank of Prince, until he deemed Raditz ready to be named his heir or he retreived Kakarot and deemed him worthy. Raditz had no intrest in the grandour that came with being a Prince anyways.

"Yes. Not only to check on Gine and Kakarot, but to bring them a pair of scouters so I can at least talk to them. I miss them Tomat."

"I know sir." Looking to change the subject, Tomat had put voice to a thought that's been bugging him for some time. "How's the son of Paragus doing? Has he learned control yet?" Broly was monstrously powerful, a match for either Bardock or Vegeta, but prone to fits of rage that left him unable to discriminate between friend or foe.

Bardock grimaced at the query, his facial expression being all the answer Tomat needed. He sighed. If Broly could learn to control himself when he was enrages, he could be the key to ending this war in their favour.

"I see. He hasn't got any worse though has he?"

"No, thank heaven. I don't know what we'd do with him if he did. Anything of interest happen besides the attack on Yardrat?"

"No sir." And on that note, Bardock turned and left the room, intent on getting some sleep. He'd picked up a couple of new scars, the most prominent one reaching from his left hip to his foot. He almost lost that leg. Damn Cooler. It only made him all the stronger when he healed however. If he bothered with power levels anymore, he'd find it interesting that he's over 25 million. That was a closely guarded secret, how his and Vegeta's strengths grew so fast.

If anybody found out about the elder on Namek, Bardock would have to put round-the-clock protection there too. He only had so many men and ships at his disposal. And yet, despite all his strength, the fabled Super Saiyan state still eluded him. If he could only achieve it, the war would be over and quickly. He felt that he was rapidly approaching a wall with his strength. If he couldn't find a way to get past it and soon, Cold would make his move and kill them all.

As he collapsed into his bed, and dreamed of Earth, visions danced in his head. Of shape-shifting cats, 3-eyed assassins, a perverted old hermit, and, always ending his dreams by turning them into nightmares, a child-sized pink demon.

CHAPTER 9: END.

AF means after Freeza by the way. His death, along with Bardock revamping how Saiyans worked as a whole was big enough for them to start a new yearly system.

If it seems like I'm zooming through Dragon Ball a little too quickly, let me know. The capsule house incident with Goku removing Bulma's panties obvously didn't happen, Gine would have killed him if it did, being that they spent the night at Gohan's house. As for how she convinced Roshi, I leave that up to your imagination. I never was a big fan of the Oolong episode, and got that out of the way quickly, but hopefully not badly. But poor Bulma. I keep putting her into one heart attack after the other. I like her, I really do I swear.

Meanwhile, as Dragon Ball unfolds and the worst thing our dynamic duo have faced is an angry Roshi, Bardock's dealing with a war that's been raging for over a decade. While him and Vegeta can hold off Cooler together, they can't get much stronger without transforming first. Will they acheive Super Saiyan? Or will the war rage until something sets off Goku and he topples the Cold empire like in canon? Wait and see. Bardock's not gonna sleep soundly for some time.

I'll be trying to write longer chapters from here on out, so updates will slow down from that pace I set to start the story. Thank you for the reviews and follows, they're more motivation for me to keep trucking knowing that somebody enjoys my ramblings. Read and Review, Green Man out.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Dragon Ball. I'd have had Tenkaichi 2 and 3 remastered by now if I did.

'Characters thoughts'

"Characters speaking"

AN: The 10th chapter is here! Yay. I mean, it's not labeled as such as a result of the intro being chapter zero, but semantics. Also, if anybody has any alternate pairing suggestions, feel free to tell me. I won't be doing any slash though. So that's out.

CHAPTER 10: START

Bulma immediately claimed the master bedroom in Oolong's mansion for herself, and almost as soon as the vilagers left with their children, I heard the shower start. 'Well she's gonna be in there forever. Please don't use all the hot water Bulma.' Oolong had showed me the kitchen earlier, after I had asked about it, and praise Shenron, it had food. A lot of food. I must have eaten my way through almost half before I remembered that I should probably save some for them.

I caught Oolong hovering around the door to Bulma's room, and he jumped almost a foot when I announced myself. "What are you doing by her door? If you were trying to peep, I won't save you from her by the way."

"Peep? I'm waiting for her to get out of the bathroom. I'd like a shower one last time before we leave. Wait. Oh yeah, there's one down the hall nevermind. Honestly this place has so many rooms you forget half of them exist" And he walked off down the hall, and soon turned out of sight. A bit weird, but who am I to judge.

I went outside to train a little, preparing myself to try the Kamehameha again. I could use the Masenko, somewhat, and a poor man's Light Grenade, but dammit they weren't blue. If I can manage to get it down before the incident with the Ox King's house, the look on Roshi's face will be priceless.

I began to meditate, the words of Gohan calming my mind. I'd already been able to put myself in a kind of zen-like state of focus at will, and after Gohan taught me proper meditation, that was only enhanced even further. When I opened my eyes, I swore I could see the ki of every living creature around me in a small radius. My thoughts were sharper, more focused as I ran through the steps to channeling and projecting ki, and my hands were cupped at my side before I noticed.

I took a deep breath, gathering my power, a small white aura forming around my body, and exhaled, the aura vanished as quickly as it appeared. Quietly, I chanted, the distinctive sound of energy gathering came to my ears, and I saw it begin to form, I'd never made it this far before! And as I celebrated my small success, my joy broke my focus and it fizzled out. Again. Only with this move. I can do a couple of attacks from Piccolo's arsenal, but anything from Canon Goku's is out of the question for me. Frustration came to the forefront of my mind, and I walked back inside the house, grumbling angrily under my breath.

I gathered a change of clothes, and tracked down Oolong, finding him just leaving the other bathroom. "Water pressure's good here right?"

"Yeah it's nice. Water bill has been killing me though. Guess I kinda brought that on myself, those girls spent almost an hour everyday in the shower I swear. How they do that I don't know."

I shrugged, and walked past the grumbling shape-shifter into the bathroom. Rather simple design, although it had a shower with a door on it, instead of the standard tub/shower combo. Resist urge to fog up door and draw on it. As the water hit my skin, I remembered how nice how water is. It's nothing but the cold rivers at Paozu for bathing. You don't know how nice a shower is, until your mother refuses to even contemplate getting one.

"A real Saiyan bathes in the cold. Hot water is for chumps." I thought about asking her if she followed her advice on Vegeta, but living was something I liked doing, so I didn't. I got out, dryed, damn hair takes forvever now, dressed and went to find a place to sleep. That couch in the living area seemed alright. I was out in minutes.

(Scene break)

Bulma gets up way too damn early in the morning. It's barely past 7 and she's already bustling about, getting ready to leave. Morning people disgust me.

"I hear ya kid. I hate em too." Oolong looked better than I probably did, owing to the coffee he was drinking.

"I said that out loud?", I asked, as a yawn forced my jaw open. Still sleepy. Still going to be sleepy for a few hours. Morning people are freaks.

"Yep. Get some food, she said we're leaving as soon as you eat. Apperantly you have a big appetite or something, according to Bulma." He walked off in the direction of what I asssumed was the kitchen. Turns out it was. Let's see here, eggs, check. Toast, check. Sausage, sorry Oolong, check. Good enough, and the whole table of food vanished in under a minute.

Oolong looked a little green from the display. "Where do you put all that food? A portal to some hellish dimension? That's not normal." I shrugged. Then swallowed before speaking.

"No idea where it goes. I've always had this appetite as long as I can remember." I quickly finished what remainder of breakfast there was, and sighed in content. "Who made this? I didn't take Bulma for a cook."

"That's because I'm not," she said as she walked into the kitchen, " Oolong made this. He's surprisingly good for a pig. We all ready? Oh hey Oolong, you don't get motion sick do you?"

"I do actually. Why? You're not planning anything are you?" He looked at the both of us, as if expecting a betrayal of some sort that instant.

"No, I'd just rather not have to deal with vomiting on the way. Here, take this. Helps with motion sickness." And she fished a small yellowish ball from her pocket, and handed it to Oolong, who to his credit, didn't take it immediately.

"You wouldn't let her kill me would you?" Apperantly I was deemed trustworthy, at least compared to Bulma.

"Nope. If I wanted that, I'd have left you to the villagers."

"Point. Well, bottoms up." And he took the pill, chasing it down with the last sip of his coffee.

"I'm not trustworthy enough for you Oolong?", she said with a hurt expression on her face, although whether that was due to her ego or she's just playing, I don't know.

"Nope. I trust him more than you. He seems to be at least somewhat altruistic. You, on the other hand, no."

Bulma scoffed, and I gave her a look. "Come to think of it, did you tell me your wish Bulma? I don't remember."

"To wish for the perfect boyfriend! ...the pigs right isn't he?"

"He is."

She sighed, and we were off after a last checkup to make sure we had everything. We walked for a few minutes, and soon came to a river. She took out a capsule, and within moments we had a speedboat. Nice, always wanted to ride one of these.

"Hey Bulma, where's the next Dragon Ball? Where are we headed?" She pulled out the radar, turned on the map and looked for a moment.

"Next one's on Fire Mountain. This is the quickest route, hop in." As soon as she had announced where we were headed, I heard a poof of smoke, and then a splash. Oolong bailed.

'Oh no you don't, you being a fish isn't gonna help.' And I dived in after him, picking him out from the fish within a minute. He was a slippery one though. I surfaced near the boat, and squeezed hard enough to reverse the transformation.

"Ow ow ow stop it! I'm gonna pop!" I tossed him into the boat, and climbed in, flaring my ki momentarily to dry myself.

"You guys are headed to Fire Mountain!? Are you nuts!? There's a ferocious demon that lives on that mountain! They say all who come near it are attacked by a giant ogre-like beast!" Ox-King then. "Count me out! I'm not going there! As he jumped off the boat, Bulma stopped me from going after him, and whisteled of all things. I heard a rumble, and Oolong frantically diving behind a bush.

"That's mean Bulma. That's really, really mean. But," I said, unable to keep from grinning, "also really funny!" A smirk from her was my only answer, and Oolong reluctantly marched back.

"That wasn't a motion-sickness pill, was it?"

"Nope. PP candy. If I whistle in a certain tone, or say a certain phrase, that'll happen again. And don't think you can try to run for it again either. I won't stop him from grabbing you again."

Oolong let out a long-suffering sigh, and sat back down in the boat as Bulma started the engine, and we were soon going down the river at speed. "Were you in on this Goku?"

"Nope. I had no idea she was gonna do something like that." He looked at me for a moment, decided I was telling the truth, and grumbled about Bulma.

After a few minutes, the boat started slowing down, running out of gas. "Already? I filled this thing up before I left home! You're got to be kidding me. Oolong, turn into a paddle."

I cut him off. "I got it Bulma, just hang on to something. Might be slightly bumpy." And at that, I left my seat and lowered myself into the water, gripped the rear of the boat, and prepared to be a Saiyan Propeller.

"I wasn't joking. You two are gonna go flying if you don't grab hold of something. You ready?"

"Yeah, but Goku what are you doiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG!" Flying straight forwards in water, while slower than air unless you're going fast enough to split the water infront of you, was a great method of propulsion. They probably didn't find it so great.

"Goku! I take it back! Leave me with the villagers! I'll face it like a man!" He was taking it better than Bulma, who screaming threats and various curses at me and my family, some of them very interesting. She's got quite the vocabulary.

Turning was fun, given I couldn't see where I needed to turn almost, but I managed. We reached where we needed to get off, after I turned around from Bulma's screeching that I missed our stop. She's gonna be upset with me for a little while I think. They climbed out, jelly legged as they were, and layed there on the ground as I hoisted the boat and myself out of the water, and set it down beside them, drying myself off with my ki again. "That's why we take a rowboat. Oh quit your crying, I didn't even go over 30! Ok maybe over 45."

"Speed, was NOT the issue. The front of the boat sticking up at a 45 degree angle? That was. Do NOT, do that again." Oolong stayed sprawled on the ground for another minute, while Bulma was starting to get up. "Come on, no use in wasting time. Let me just get a car and we can get going."

"Goku? Where are my capsules?" She looked at me, with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face, and I could tell that she blamed me for her being unable to find them. I noticed Oolong's face shift into a fearful expression, and I threw him to the wolves. I'm a jerk like that.

"Ask Oolong not me. He's the one who looks worried." The look I got was like a man who'd been betrayed by his brother, or found his wife had been cheating. 'Sorry man. Better you than me.'

"Oolong. Do I need to make you have the runs again?"

"I took them when I tried to run earlier ok! You left the case right where I sat down, and Goku didn't see me take them! I ditched it as soon as I got in the water please don't kill me!"

"Don't tempt me. You can turn into vehicles right? Turn into a motorbike. I am not walking across this desert!"

He did so, and as Bulma sat down on it, he groaned and fell over, knocking Bulma off and reverting the transformation. "Oolong! What the hell!"

"I don't get stronger as I change shape. Not strong enough to lift much more than 40 pounds." I stared walking away at this point, picking up a strong ki signature. They'll follow when they notice. I want to see if Yamcha can give me a fight.

"Hey! Don't leave me out here!" They noticed. Damn. I was enjoying the silence too. As we walked, I kept my figurative eye on Yamcha's energy, and I felt another, smaller one beside him. Puar. They'll probably be on us soon.

"Hey Bulma, where do we go now?" I looked behind, and she had sank to the floor, pitching a fit that would make your average baby in the store proud.

"This is torture! I wasn't made for all this walking! I can't stand this heat! Think of what it's doing to my skin! I didn't even put sunscreen on! I'm gonna burn and then it'll be unevern, and I won't be able to go outside! And my hair!" She grabbed two handfuls of it, as if it was going to fall off right that second. "The humidity is going to give me split ends!" Alright, I'm not listening to this anymore. I walked over, and picked her up, interrupting her rant, and just started walking, taking the radar and passing it to Oolong

"Press that button there, it'll bring the map up, Then we'll know which way to go. Bulma you can beat on my back all you want, it's not going to do anything. Where we headed?" He was staring at the map in fear, a name flashing, and I felt Yamcha and Puar's energies move towards us. "Oolong?"

"Diablo desert. Goku we gotta move! Diablo Desert is home to a fearsome bandit named Yamcha! We need to leave before he finds us!" I looked past Oolong, and saw said bandit sitting on a rock, seemingly enjoying Oolong talking about him so.

"You mean that Yamcha? I think he's found us already." Oolong froze, before slowly looking around and laying eyes on Yamcha.

"Oh don't stop on my account! Keep going! I want to hear what new stories they've made up about me." He's enjoying this a little too much.

"Y-Y-yamcha... please spare us! Take the kid! I'm of no use to such a great and might one such as yourself!" I kinda had that coming after sicking Bulma on him, who was being oddly quiet, and I discovered she fainted. That might be bad. "I'm only a humble... PUAR!? What're you doing here!?"

"Who's Puar? That cat with Yamcha?"

"Yeah! I remember her from the shapeshifting academy! She always had it out for me. Jealousy of my skills I imagine." Puar didn't take that accusation well.

"Oolong you liar! You take that back! I stayed and finished the courses, but they kicked you out for being a bully! You can't even transform for longer than 5 minutes!" Yamcha smirked, as if it was a show-off between the two of us. I of course, had to say my piece before the fight started.

"There's a shapeshifting school? You can learn this stuff? Would they take me?" Puar was confused, not expecting me to be so calm I'd wager.

"Y-yeah, it's something you can learn, but the school doesn't take humans, sorry."

"Figures. Alright, Yamcha we gonna fight over our stuff or what? I'm not giving you a damn thing." His smirk wasa a full-fledged grin now, and he got up and slowly started my way, drawing his sword as he did.

"I don't normally fight kids, but if it's a fight you want!" I drew the Power Pole and blocked his slash, then dropped and tried to trip him up with my tail. He lept over it, and came down with a kick hat I dodged with a roll. I came up swinging, and started extending the pole rapidly, trying to get past his guard. He blocked every one of my thrusts, and managed to grab the pole before I could draw it back in, yanking it, and me, towards him.

I pushed it as he pulled, the unexpected force making him stumble backwards. 'Power Pole, retract!' And it shrunk to a size smaller than my thumb, and he dropped it in surprise, one of the ends facing him, 'Extend!', and it shot out, nailing him in the gut. I lept forward, retrieving it and flipping to bring it straight down, putting all my strength behind my swing. He side-stepped it, timing it perfectly, and kicked me as I came down past his waist, sending me skidding along the ground.

The both of us eyed each other with newfound respect, Yamcha being better with his sword than I expected. "I gotta admit, for a kid you sure move like you're a natural. And that's a pretty nifty pole you got there. Are you related to Gohan by any chance?"

"Yeah, he's my grandpa. I'm surprised you know of him. You're pretty good yourself, not what I expected from a bandit." As we prepared to clash once more, he planted his sword into the ground beside him, and shifted into a stance.

"Sorry kid, I'd love to spar some more, but I'll be taking your things now. Wolf Fang Fist!" He lept, and I saw an aura of a wolf form around him, his ki focused in his palms. This was going to be fun to block, and I jumped, ki filling my hands as a counter. His hand, covered in a shroud of ki like a wolf's claw, blurred towards my side, and I parried it to the side. His other hand shot forwards in a punch at my face, and I barely deflected that one, his next strike clipping me, and soon I couldn't keep up, Yamcha pummeling me, ending with a double-palm strike that sent me flying through several rocks.

As my flight on Air Yamcha came to a halt, the tarmac being more rocky than it should, I climbed out of it to see Puar change into a flyswatter and smack at Oolong. Who offered Yamcha a capsule immediately. 'Little runt. He never threw them away. He's been keeping them for himself, likely for when he runs for it. Good move with the candy Bulma.'

"Hey! Try that again, it's not gonna work a second time!" I jumped back towards the fight, and Yamcha grinned as he prepared his Wolf Fang Fist once more. As the attack flew towards me, I launched one of my own. "Rock!" And my blow stopped his cold. He didn't let his shock stop him from following through. "Scissors!" And I ducked onder his blow and delivered a paml-strike to his chest, and finished my attack immediately. "Paper!" And I felt bad about, but I poked his eyes with my fingers, and kicked him away.

"Mislabeling your moves to make me guess which one's coming. Dirty. I like it." He got up quickly, rubbing his eyes, and I didn't think that was gonna work again.

"Well yeah. The point of a fight is to beat the other guy, not for pride or something stupid like that." Dammit. I was starting to get hungry again. If I didn't end this soon, I'll lose.

"My kinda fighter. I like you kid, what's your name?"

"Son Goku."

"Alright then Goku, can you stop my Fist a second time? I don't think so!" And we lept, ready to clash again when a groan interrupted us, and Bulma showed signs of life, and Yamcha froze, but I didn't. My blow connected with his jaw, sending him to jis back, and he stared at Bulma still. Then he suddenly lept to his feet.

"I- It's against my code to fight a woman! You haven't seen the last of me!" And off he ran, back to the rock he was sitting on, pulling a jet bike from behind it, grabbing Puar and blasting off. I thought about going after them with the Numbus, but decided against it. What made him run off though?

"Who was that guy? He was gorgeous! Goku! Why'd you chase him off!" Oh right. That's why. Crippling fear of women. Bulma's finally come in handy during a fight though, need to offer her some training, at least so she can defend herself.

"Well Bulma, he tried to steal all our stuff. I'd rather not give up the Dragon Balls when we're this close. Also, Oolong has some capsules. He tried to bribe Yamcha with them" Again I got that same exact look from earlier. Don't steal them if you don't want me telling her.

She was calmer than I though she'd be. "There better be a place to sleep in one of those capsules Oolong."

"T-there is, there's shelter from the cold I swear!" And with that, he threw one into the air, and with the familiar BOOMF, a double-decker RV appeared. I didn't even know those were a thing. At least I don't have to try to start a fire outhere tonight.

"This is all I got! It has a bed in it, and a shower. Doesn't get good mileage, but it's a place to sleep." We all piled in, and Bulma darted for the shower, grumbling about her skin again.

Oolong had brought a couple drinks from the fridge, and set them down at the table. "Goku. If you could stop throwing me under the bus, that'd be great."

"Stop doing things you know she'll get mad at then. I'm not taking the heat for you Oolong. She scares me."

He sighed, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah she scares me too. A toast to the fear we share?" it was stupid, but we clinked our drinks together. Scary woman.

"Anways, I gotta ask. What're these "Dragon Balls" supposed to be anyway? They aren't worth any money, maybe to some kinda museum, but I don't know."

I thought about it, wondering if it was safe to tell him. Well if the worst he wished for was a pair of panties, it should be ok. "Well, according to their legend, when all seven of them are gathered, they summon a wish-granting dragon. Anything you wish for, he'll grant it. And he's not like those genies in stories either, who take you literally. He gives you what you meant by the wish. Like, let's say you wish for somebody to be brought back ti life. He could just restore that person to life in whatever state they died in, obviously I don't need to give you an example of why that's bad. He'll heal whatever damage you suffered, if any and bring you back like you were before you took any damage."

"He's that powerful? He have any limits, like "Oh I can't make people fall in love", that kinda stuff?"

"Well, if you die of natural causes, he can't revive you. I've heard that he also has a year time limit to bring people back, although I'm not sure on that one. He can't grant any wish that would exceed his creator's power either, can only bring people back once, and you only get the one wish."

"You believe this story though? Because if this is true, then it sounds like something that bad people would try to abuse for themselves."

"And thus, you understand why I came with Bulma. To make sure she doesn't misuse them. Mom would kill me if I let her do that." Oolong raised his brows in mild surprise.

"You have a mom? And she just lets you roam around the planet without even checking in or something? Sounds like she's not very good at... I'm gonna shut up now."

"You should. And yes, I do have a mother. Most people do," the face I got was great, "and she's much stronger than I am. Even if you cloned me and Yamcha a hundred times, we'd still lose. Badly."

A low whistle was my response. "Your Mom have a tail too?"

'Welp. Not that I was trying too hard to blend in, but he might be on to me.'

"She does. Why? A dog is the Earth's King for crying out loud, what's your point."

"I'm just saying, I obviously have no room to say you're not human, but let's see here. Tail, check. Monstrous strength, check. The freakish appetite, check. Have I guessed correctly?" He's smarter than he lets on. I underestimated him. Just because I'm stronger doesn't mean I shouldn't take him seriously.

"Well, to tell you the truth," I never finished that sentence, as I heard a very small thump against the outside of the rv. "Hold that thought, I just heard something outside, I'll be right back." And I got up from the table, and walked outside, expanding my ki sense as I did, and felt 3 small signatures fleeing at speed. As I got out, I threw a ki blast over their heads, just so I could get a glimpse of their faces. Pilaf, Mai, and Shu. I had comepletely forgotten they existed.

As it exploded in midair, they froze, and turned in time for the bomb I peeled off our temporary lodgings to smack into Shu's face. "If you could wait for us to get to you on our own time, that'd be great. Hope you can peel that off."

Oolong was stitting at the table still, and I took my seat again. "Where was I? Oh yeah. Me and my mom aren't human. What we are, I can't say, but we mean no harm to this planet or it's people, I swear. I can't give you any more details than that right now, I'm sorry."

"What just happened outside? And what do you mean you can't give me anymore details?"

"Mom told me that if I had to tell anybody about us, I need to get her permission first. And there was some people trying to sneak up on us. They put a bomb near a window and ran, so I peeled it off and threw it back to them. Hopefully they can get if off. Or disarm it."

Oolong stared at me for a minute, mulling over everything I had just told him, and he came to a decision. "I'll trust you for now, since you did save my life and all. You really mean that about not causing any harm?"

"Yep. Unless that's my only option. Hey, you got a couch or something? I'm getting tired."

"Yeah, right over there. Sleep tight."

(Scene break)

I woke up early again, damn Bulma, and she... oh God she's wearing a bunny outfit. What. Why. What did I do to deserve this? Just ignore her Goku, get food, ask if anything happened after you fell asleep.

Oh good, you're awake. As you can see, our "gracious host"," she shot him a glare, "has provided me with something to wear until I can get my clothes washed. Hurry up and get something to eat, I want out of this desert as soon as possible."

Oh thank heavens, there's food. A good amount of it too. Oolong clearly meant for all this to be an emergency suppy, because there's at least a few weeks worth. Or 2 days worth with my stomach. "Anything happen after I fell asleep?" As I tore into some fish, I saw Oolong get nervous, then, learning from yesterday, school his face into a bored look quickly. Not quick enough. Eh, I'll cut him some slack.

"Not to my knowledge. How far is Fire Mountain anyway Bulma?" He's either resigned into going there, or he's somewhat gotten over his fear. Probably the former.

"About 10 miles away I'd say. We should be there this afternoon at latest. You done yet Goku?" I swallowed the last bunch of noodles I found in the fridge, and nodded.

And we were off, the, as I discovered as Oolong heard me call it an rv, house-wagon, being a little bumpy, but it beat walking. AC was working, and boy was that about the thing I missed the most. Aside from sweet tea. I'd honestly considered using a wish for that. I lived in the southern US, don't judge me.

After about 15 minutes of driving, I sensed Yamcha closing in on us again. "Hey Bulma, stop this thing. I got to go fight your boyfriend again."

"My what? Goku I don't have a boyfriend yet. What're you ... YAMCHA?" We came to a schreeching halt, and Bulma leaped for the door, and with a sigh, we followed. Good thing too, because after we got clear of the bus, a rocket crashed into it, and the explosion both knocked it over and Bulma unconscious. At least I think she's unconscious. God help us, if she's dead, so are we.

"Bulma! Oolong, are you ok!?" A groan was my answer, and Oolong picked himself up, a little bit scuffed up, but he seemed fine. "Go check on Bulma, I'll handle Yamcha!" I didn't care, at that moment, that Yamcha's not a bad guy. I didn't care that he'll be an important ally. He hurt Bulma. He's not going to be able to sit for a week.

"Ok, that's them immobilized, now to handle Goku-" Whatever else ha had to say, I didn't know, because the Power Pole slammed into his forehead, followed by my knee, and he was sent sprawling. He quickly leapt to his feet, just in time for my feet to hit his solar plexus, knocking him down and winding him too. I grabbed him by his leg, spun him around and threw him at a boulder, and he crashed through it. I stared at the dust kicked up, my sanity bating on my rage.

Yamcha leapt through the dust, a deadly serious look on his face, and wasted no time using the Wolf Fang Fist, even as I blocked every strike, my anger aiding my reaction times, he didn't let up, and when he went for the double palm strike to end it, I ducked under, and slammed my elbow into his gut. Hard. He stumbled back, cluctching his guy, and I grabbed him, jumping over to Bulma's unconscious body.

"Look! Look at what you did! You hurt my friend! You have any idea what the shockwave from an explosion does to the human body, especially one that doesn't have ki to protect it like me and you?" To his credit, his eyes widened, and he lowered his head in what appeared to be shame. "You better pray she wakes up with just a headache Yamcha, and sore all over. Now pick her up, you're coming with us."

Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong, simultaneously, and quite loudly, my poor ears, shouted, "WHAT!", at my sudden conscription of Yamcha.

"Goku you can't be serious! You can't trust Yamcha! The instant you turn your back, he'll stick a knife in it!" Puar started to leap to Yamcha's defense, but he beat her to it.

"Oh, you mean like you tried to do yesterday, when I'd beaten Goku and you tried to give away all of your stuff? And why should I listen to you, you don't have any authority over me." He's managed to stay remarkably calm with Bulma right there. I guess him being angry at me for the beating I just gave him is overriding his fear of women for the time being.

"You shot a rpg at our only means of transportation and shelter," said shelter chose this moment to finish exploding, and I saw Pilaf and gang burst from the wreckage. Good, all 3 lived, "and you knocked Bulma out, possibly worse. I could always keep beating you, but that's a waste of both our time, and you don't deserve that anyway. You're better than this life of banditry Yamcha, I know it. You could do some good."

He thought about it for a couple of minutes. "Can I talk with Puar about this, before I make my decision?"

"Sure. I'd at least like a ride towards our destination if you turn me down though. Seeing as how Bulma's indisposed, and Oolong isn't the fastest of people." Yamcha ignored the remarks if indignation from said pig, and walked away to talk with Puar.

I could have easily listened in with my hearing, but I decided to give them their privacy, instead checking on Bulma. "She's breathing ok, I don't hear any sounds of her ribs scraping over anything, but I can't tell without being able to look inside of her." I'd kill for x-ray vision right now. ... I wonder.

"Hey Oolong, you think you'd be able to transform into an X-ray machine of some sort, so I could check for any broken bones?"

"Nope. I don't think that's possible, at least from what I learned. Maybe," he swallowed some pride saying this, "maybe Puar could. She finished the school."

I was just about to ask, when Yamcha walked over. "Fine. Whatever journey you three are on, I guess we'll tag along. I feel bad already for blowing up your car, but I didn't mean to hurt her. She's ok isn't she?" He did seem remorseful over his actions, so I guess I could let it slide.

"No, at least, I don't see any signs of broken bones or anything. Puar, you can't transform into an X-Ray machine, or something like that could you?" She shook her head.

"No Goku, we can transform into some small-scale powered objects, but nothing like that." Crud. Worth a try. Carefully, I picked Bulma up, and loaded her into Yamcha's car, making sure not to jostle her neck as little as possible. We all piled in, me calling shotgun, much to Oolong's annoyance.

Yamcha started the car, then realized he didn't quite know where we were headed. "Which way were you three going? You got a map or anything?" I fished the radar out of my pocket, taking care not to jostle the case... oh God. The case, Dragon Balls, PIlaf. My rising panic must have been clear on my face.

"Uh Goku, you do know where we're headed right?" I looked at the radar, still seeing the one ball at Fire Mountain, and our five going in the oppsite direction. Bulma's going to kick my ass when she wakes up. He doesn't have all seven though, we can still fix this.

Yeah. We're headed to Fire Mountain. That's where the last Dragon Ball's located." Yamcha looked at me in surprise, and maybe even a little fear. No, that's probably me projecting onto him.

"Fire Mountain? You're crazy right? You had to have heard of the demon that calls that place home. And do you really believe in that old legend about the Dragon Balls?"

"Why not? If it's real, a wish for anything I can think of. If not, it'll make a cool story. And between the two of us, the "demon", shouldn't be much of a challenge." I tried to smile, at least appear like I wasn't shrieking, tornado sirens going off inside my mind. 'If Bulma doesn't kill me, Mom will when she finds out how careless I was with them.'

CHAPTER 10: END

Hopefully I did Yamcha justice. The scenes that Goku's not around for, I didn't write, given that this story is following his POV, unless otherwise stated, he wouldn't know about them, nor does he remember that Yamcha planned to double-cross them, and steal the balls for himself. Goku got a bit of a rage boost from seeing Bulma hut like that, and he had, what I thought anyway, a good reason for it. While she was far enough away, and the rpg weak enough for the shockwave to only render her unconscious, he didn't know that. Shcokwaves are often deadliest part of an explosion, but thankfully, the rpg was outdated, otherwise Yamcha would be in pretty bad shape.

And I finally got around to introducing Pilaf and crew. Shu was able to disarm the bomb, and given that their quarry could tell they were there, they had chose to try again in the morning, when he was sure to be asleep. Even though Goku's had 12 years to grow, and Gine's pounded out some of his old habits, forgetfulness like that bit him in the ass this time. Will Pilaf and crew succeed in thier mission to gather the Dragon Balls? Will Yamcha get over his fear of women? Find out next time, on Thank God for Senzu! :Warning, senzu not included. Read and Review, Green Man out.


	12. Chapter 12

I own nothing. No comment this time either, couldn't think of one.

'Characters thoughts'

"Characters speaking"

CHAPTER 11: START

It took us about 30 minutes to get to Fire Mountain, cramped into Yamcha's car. It really only has 2 seats, and I was somehow able to finagle Oolong into the area behind said seats, and I just held on, Puar sitting on Bulma's lap, who woke up halfway through the drive, and almost caused Yamcha to wreck. Fun times.

What was even more fun was finding ChiChi being chased by a dinosaur. As we got closer to Fire Mountain, I heard screaming, and looked over and saw her running for her life from a T-Rex that was purple of all things. Viciously choking that damn song to death before it could get in my head, I pointed her out, and told Yamcha to stop the car. I jumped towards her, ready to kill it when she stopped, yanked that blade of her helmet, abd with a cry of "Stay away from me!", flung it at it's neck, decapitating it cleanly. As the blade flew back around to her, she pressed a button on her helmet, and a laser shot out, disintegrating the remains. Awww. It'd been a while since I had seared T-Rex. very tasty.

As she caught her blade and stuck it back on her helmet, she turned, and bounced off my chest, landing flat on her butt. Somehow I wasn't impaled by her helmet, which I really need to let Ox-King have it about. She could kill a person on accident with that damn thing. "Hey, you all right? That was pretty good the way you handled that dinosaur." I was not expecting her to attack me with her blade on purpose though.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers!" And her blade was sent flying again, but I was somewhat more tough than the dino. Somewhat. Filling my fist with ki, I reached and plucked the blade out of the air, only getting a small scratch on my hand, and it would be in a spot where it'll sting like hell if I do anything with that hand. That's what I get for showing off.

"And yet you're allowed to roam around unsupervised. Your parents got the stranger danger part down at least. I'm Son Goku, who are you?." She stared in a little shock, clearly I was the first one to nullify her blade like that.

"I'm still not supposed to talk to strangers Mr. Goku. I have to go find the Bansho Fan to put out the flames on my house." Why Ox-King didn't go himself I don't know. Or hell, just take ChiChi with him.

"Do you even know where to find it? And if you mean Fire Mountain, we're headed there right now actually, we're looking for the Dragon Ball in that area. You want to go back with us and then we'll help you look, or stay out here?" She at least thought the offer over, before shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, but I can't go back until I find that fan. If you see my father though, tell him I'm doing ok please?"

"I'd need to know your name first though, or you'd have to tell me what your dad looks like." I of course knew the answer to both of those, but I couldn't go around blabbering that. I'd like to railroad as much as possible until around Z's beginning. Just without you know, people dying.

"My name's ChiChi, and you'll know father when you see him. He's hard to miss. I have to get going though." And she turned around and took off, moving faster than I thought she'd be. Oh well, I'll run into her later. As I walked over to the car, Yamcha looked impatient, and I don't blame him.

"Ok, that distraction's over, let's get going. Unless Goku wants to play knight in shining armor again. Who was that girl anyway?"

"She lives at Fire Mountain apperantly, her dad sent her to try to find a way to put out the flames around the castle."

"By herself though? Seems like bad parenting to me." I shrugged, sadly bad parenting seemed to be rather common here. Note to self: Do NOT throw Cell a senzu bean if anything remotely like that happens. And have Vegeta on standby with the Final Flash if at all possible. Need to have some kind of plan ready for future events. The rest of the ride went smoothly, and we soon made it to our destination.

As we all got out, or in my case, off, the cramped car, we stared up at the flaming mountain, and the heat it gave off, even from this far away was incredible. I don't want to know what it would be like if you were somehow inside it.

"Well, here we are. Fire Mountain. They say fire's been burning for over 10 years now. I'm surprised the mountain is still there to be honest, let alone that castle. No sign of this demon though." Bulma you had to say it. As if on cue, a large shape burst from behind the partially destroyed, well now just destroyed, wall to our left, swinging a large axe and barely missing us. Before he could pull his weapon back, me and Yamcha rushed him.

"I'll take his legs, knock him off balance!" I did indeed hit his legs, slamming into them with both feet, and hurt myself more than I did him. 'Holy hell that hurt! What's this guy made out of?' Yamcha had about as much success as I did, his Wolf Fang Fist bouncing off his chest, although the finisher did knock him back a bit, so he wasn't invincible, just really tough.

He laughed at us, a deep booming sound, and for a moment, with the flaming castle as the backdrop casting a shadow over him, I could see how people called him a demon. "Hah! You two are gonna have to do better 'n that if you want my treasure!" And down came his axe, and I'd rather not see if I could take a blow from that, given how effortlessly it rends the earth, I might not.

As Yamcha and I continued our dance around him, our blows failing to deal damage, but his failing to connect, Bulma tried to reason with him. "We're not thieves! We're not here for your treasure! We just want that Dragon Ball inside your castle! We'll put out the fire for you if that's what it takes for you to believe us!" Always promising stuff she didn't have to deliver. Ah well. I was going to do it anyway.

"Not thieves eh? You'll forgive me if I don't believe you. I've had too many people claim to not be thieves and then try to stab me in the back. I'm gonna need prooof that you're... is that the Power Pole? Where'd you get that boy? Last I heard Gohan had that thing." Seriously, how many people know Grandpa? Apperantly everybody.

"My Grandpa gave it to me before I left. He never said anything about you though, but he did tell me to be careful around Master Roshi. How do you know him?"

I saw Yamcha's eyes widen in surprise, mumbling to himself, "Great. Not only is this kid Gohan's grandson, but he knows the legendary Turtle Hermit? Yamcha what are you thinking." Ignoring his mutterings, I watched for any sign of attack from the giant, before he surprised me, and lowered his axe.

"Gohan never talked about me? That hurts, we were like brothers almost, training under Master Roshi. He lives up on Paozu right?" I nodded. "Ok, I'll have to go see him later. You there, girlie. You said something about putting out the fire?" Bulma gulped at being directly addressed, but nodded.

"Y-yeah, we're not after money, we just want the Dragon Ball inside. Goku show him what they look like." Oh boy. Now she's gonna know that I lost em. Welp, better get this over with.

"About that. I kinda can't do that. I might have, you know, sorta left the case on the table, and uh, there might have been a couple of thieves who snuck into the ruins of the bus while I was dealing with Yamcha, and there is a possibilty they you know, stole it." Every word I said, her face grew more and more empty of emotion, and Yamcha looked at me like I was about to be executed. I might be.

"Goku." I did not whimper, any stories to the contrary are lies. "Who's they. And why," goodbye world, "DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIER YOU IDIOT!? THEY COULD BE ANYWHERE BY NOW, TRACKING THEM DOWN MIGHT BE NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE!" Where did that gun come from? Move Goku. Those will hurt. despite my best efforts, she landed quite a few of her shots, and they did indeed hurt. Bruised a little.

"Why didn't I tell you earlier? Gee, maybe I saw that reaction coming?" Sarcasm is doing nothing to ease her temper, and is only making the hole she's gonna bury me in deeper. I better get down to business before she actually kills me. "Yeah she did, and before we got here, we ran into a girl who said she was sent by her father to retrieve some Bansho Fan, said her name was ChiChi. I assume you're her father?" Next thing I knew he swooped me up to his eye level, and shook me like a ragdoll.

"ChiChi!? You've seen her!? Where? Is she ok? Is she on her way back, tell me please! I sent her to get the fan from Master Roshi, and I'd have gone with her if I wasn't keeping this fire from spreading! Please tell me my little girl's ok. She's, she's all I have left." He sank to the ground, voice losing the energy it had, sounding hollow and broken at the end.

Still in his grip, I told him of my encounter with his daughter, and his spirits seemed to lift upon hearing she was ok. "If you would let me go, I can go get the fan from Roshi myself. I'll probably be there and back faster than she would, with my Nimbus."

"Master gave you the legendary Nimbus Cloud? And you can ride it? That's impresive. Neither me or Gohan could even get it to slow us down whwn we tried to ride it. If you bring the fan, and ChiChi back, not only will I let you have that Dragon Ball, I'll even give you my daughter's hand in marriage!" And there it is. I'm gonna have to find some way to tell him no about that last bit without angering him.

He set me down, and climbed to his feet, towering over us all. Seriously, what do they feed people here? How's he so damn big? "What's your name again kid? Geeko or something like that?" Yamcha snickered first. He's getting it.

"Son Goku, and I'll be back as quick as I can. If you don't mind, I'm gonna leave these buffoons here." At their squawk of protest, I amended my statement. "Ok, I'm sorry, the floating cat is not a buffoon, Puar is alright." And with a shout, Nimbus was in front of me in seconds, and I was off, Nimbus going at top speed, and given I wasn't all that good with math, trying to guess how fast it was going wasn't gonna happen. Damn quick is all I got.

Within about 15 minutes, I spotted ChiChi. She jumped when I zoomed by her. I've got to get this thing's brakes checked. "Hey ChiChi, I met your dad. He's worried about you by the way."

"Goku!, Don't scare me like that!" Already dropped the Mr. Goku I see. Praise Shenron, I'm not that old dammit. "Did he attack you? Are you hurt? No? Good. He can be a little, aggressive towards strangers." If that's a little aggressive, I don't want to see him when he's actually angry. "What are you doing out here again anyway?"

"I'm headed to Master Roshi's, to get that Basho Fan or whatever it is."

"It's BanSHO, not Basho." She sounded like a school teacher for a minute there. I've known her for five minutes and already she's exasperated with me. Mission complete.

"Yeah yeah, it's a fan. You wanna come with me? I'll have us there a lot faster than walking." She turned red, pressing her hands to her cheeks and turning around even. It was cute, it really was. Not doing that whole marriage thing. It's a little too awkward, given my situation.

"S-sure, but will I be able to sit on that cloud of yours?" She better, I'm not carrying her unless I have to. That "armor" is showing way too much skin. Why she's allowed to run around in that I don't know.

"Well, we're about to find out. Come on." Taking my offered hand, blush intensifying for a moment, she was indeed able to ride the cloud. After searching for Roshi's ki so I'd have a direction, I set off, going slower than I was earlier. I didn't want to find out that she has motion sickness. I'll be the victim of the effects with my luck.

The trip over to Roshi's island was spent in peace and quiet for the most part, ChiChi asking some questions about my friends, what we were doing, and I answered as best I could. I'm not the best at putting my thoughts into words, but I think she got the gist of it.

Soon, Roshi's island was in sight, and I spotted the old master on the beach, as if waiting for us. He sensed us way before we saw the island I bet. "You're back. Oh, and you brought another, wait no she's a child nevermind. This one's a little too young for my tastes boy. Where's that girl you were here the other day with?" Well at least he has some standards.

"She's back at Fire Mountain with the Ox-King. He sent me and his daughter ChiChi," I motioned to her, and she peeked from behind my back, "to retrieve the Bansho Fan to put out the flames around his castle. We need it to get the Dragon Ball from inside. You do have it right?" Roshi looked like he was about to tell us, then thought better of it.

"Hey Turtle. What happened to that Bansho Fan again? You remember what I did with the darn thing?"

"Yes master, you were using it as a welcome mat remember? Then you spilled that juice on it."

"Oh yeah. Ended up throwing the darn thing away. Couldn't get the juice out no matter what I tried." ChiChi didn't take that too well, a hiss of air coming from her, and she leapt off the cloud, upset with Roshi. Better him than me.

"You were using the legendary Bansho Fan as a welcome mat!? What kind of legendary martial artitst are you!? You can't be the real Turtle Hermit, he would have shown it more respect!" And with a cry, she flung her blade at Roshi, and he ducked out of the way like it wasn't even worth his time doing so. He didn't have eyes in the back of his head however, and the blade smacked into it on the rebound, and looked to be pretty deep in there. ChiChi, I swear to God if I have to use Shenron to revive Roshi. Wait a minute, can't do that, Dragon Ball's in the castle which is covered by flames too hot for me. We're... he's fine? What?

"See! The real Turtle Hermit would have dodged that attack!" How is he, how is he not dead? That blade looks like it's at least half a foot inside his skull, and he's completely fine.

"The Immortal Phoenix doesn't just cover old age you know. And I am the real Turtle Hermit, I have my own hermit membership card, thank you very much." And on that note, blade still in his cranium, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an honest-to-goodness hermit membership card. After a moment of looking at it, ChiChi was convinced, and the realization of what she just did hit her. I'd have laughed at her face if I wasn't still trying to wrap my head around Roshi not dying from a blade in his.

"Ohmygosh I'm so sorry! Please forgive me Master Roshi!" And she reached out and plucked the blade from his head, blood spurting from the wound, and leapt back to the Nimbus and tried to will the cloud to devour her whole. At the same time, Roshi was having a bit of a freakout, trying to find a bandage big enough to cover his still bleeding injury, when Turtle sighed and pulled one from his shell, Roshi smacking it into place.

"Thank you Turtle. Whew that was close. I may be immortal, but I still need blood in my body. Boy, come here, I need to discuss something with you in private." Either he forgot my name, or just didn't care about using it. Probably the latter.

"Ok, seeing as how I don't have the fan anymore, I'd need to go to Fire Mountain myself to put out the blaze. If I go, you think you could set me up with that Bulma?" He whispered, a lecherous grin forming on his face.

"I can't promise anything, she's already mad at me for letting some thieves make off with the five balls we've already collected, but I should be able to convince her." I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of convincing Bulma. Oolong, on the other hand, I could. I hoped.

"Hmmm. Ok, sounds good. By the way, don't tell that girl, you said her name was ChiChi right? Don't tell her about the deal."

As I hopped back onto the Nimbus, I wondered how Roshi was going to get there, when he whistled and a baby turtle came out of the water and came to a stop in front of him. "Come on Gamera, we're headed to Fire Mountain." The turtle roared, and I fought the urge to take it home with me. If, wait did he say Gamera? Upon closer inspection, it really was a baby Gamera. Hopefully it doesn't have a parent looking for it or we're in trouble.

He climbed on it's back and sat down, Gamera retracting his limbs and head inside his shell, and the turtle began to spin rapidly, floating into the air. "Alright, let's get this show on the road!" With another roar from Gamera, Roshi shot off, and were those jets coming from the holes were it's limbs were? Resist Goku, you don't need to test Mom's no pets policy. I jumped to the Nimbus, spooking ChiChi a little, and took off after Roshi, catching him after a few minutes.

"We spoke little on the way there on account of the wind rushing in our faces. I'm surprised Roshi's shades didn't fall off. he didn't even look like he was holding them on. Fire Mountain came into view soon, and we slowed as we began to cricle, looking for a good landing spot. I landed by Yamcha, as Bulma was still upset with me, and ChiChi leapt off the cloud and into her fathers arms, the Ox-King spinning her around, laughing in joy. I wonder How Bardock's doing right now, if he's even still alive that is.

"ChiChi! You're safe! Oh thank heavens, I was so worried for you! Did you get hurt, did you find the Bansho Fan?"

"I'm glad to see you too papa. And no, we don't have the fan. But Master Roshi's here, so he has to have some kind of plan to put out the fire. Right?" The hermit in question was stumbling off from Gamera like he was drunk. I'm just impressed he didn't lose his lunch.

"Master! I haven't seen you in ages! How are you doing?" He looked like he was going to ask more questions, but Roshi silenced him with his staff, bonking him good over the head with.

"What's this I hear about you terrorising innocents hmmmm? I've even heard you killed people. That is not how I trained you to be you barbarian! With strength comes the duty to use it in the defense of the weak, not ever to attack them!" Roshi was livid, laying into his wayward pupil for a little while longer, before calming himself and ending his tirade.

"I-I can not excuse my actions Master. I was consumed by my greed. I'll throw away my treasures, and start over! I can only beg your forgiveness, and I swear to atone for my actions in whatever way I can. Please forgive me Master!"

"Don't throw them away, that'd be a waste. You two, come over here for a minute."

As the Ox-King bowed, forehead pressed against the dirt, Master Roshi pulled myself and Bulma aside and out of sight from the others, stopping when we were behind a miraculously still standing wall.

"Ok boy," he's not using my name on purpose I swear, "I came here to put out the fire, time for you to hold up your end of the bargain, assuming you still want that Dragon Ball." Ugh, this was gonna be fun.

"What bargain, Goku what did you promise him?" Her eyes narrowed as she looked from me to Roshi, explanation demanded.

"He asked for me to set up a date with you in exchange for putting out the blaze. I had no other option than to say yes. He'll put the fire out, we'll get the ball, and we go after the other six and get them. What's one date with him gonna hurt?"

Bulma's glare intensified, as if trying to bore a hole through my chest. "Let me think about it first." And she walked around the little wall that Roshi dragged us behind, reappearing after a couple of minutes passed, looking much more cheerful than she was when she left. "Ok old-timer, you got your date, after we get the Dragon Ball though."

"Heh. Fine by me, I'll have this inferno out in a jiffy!" Walking around, and sighing at the still bowed Ox-King, Roshi removed the turtle shell from his back, his shirt being removed, showing the skinny frame beneath, before he stashed it inside the shell. He scaled a thin wall still standing, I say scaled, but I had to help him, and he began to channel his energy.

As he gathered his power, I was looking on intently, determined to see how much stronger than me he really was. I got my answer, and it was by a lot. I made my mind up then and there. I'm going to get him to train me somehow.

"EYAAAAAAGHH!" And his power flooded his body, muscles expanding, growing, and soon, the thin, wiry frame of Roshi the pervert was gone. Master Roshi, the disciple of the man who brought down King Piccolo, was in his place, muscles bulging with strength, and he looked every inch the fearsome warrior his repuation said he was, as he began to focus his considerable might into the palms of his hands, waving his muscular arms through a series of motions.

"KA-ME-HA-ME," he paused for a moment, and I felt his energy rushing down his arms, a blue sphere formed in his hands, and he unleashed the blast that I've spent years trying to perform, "HAAAAAAAAAA!"

The light from the blast blinded us all, and I think I heard a scream, but every noise was drowned out by the sound of Roshi's attack slamming into the mountain.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!

The effects of Roshi's success were immediate, the oppressive heat from the fire vanishing, and as the light faded, we slowly opened our eyes. The fire was indeed gone. And so was the castle. And the mountain. Rubble took the place of the structure, and I wondered if the Dragon Ball could be destroyed by something like that. 'Questions for, I'm doing it again.'

Roshi, muscles gone and his slim frame having returned, hopped down from the wall, and donned his shirt and shell, ignoring the stunned reactions until he had finished buttoning up his shirt. "Well, the fire's out!"

Bulma recovered first. "Yeah, but so is the entire freaking mountain!" Roshi looked behind him, as if only just now noticing the effects of his blast.

"Whoops. Put a little too much "oomph" into that one." He said, rubbing his head awkwardly. Sorry about your home there Ox."

"It's fine Master, we can rebuild. Truth be told, I don't think I could live there anymore, so you did me a favor by demolishing it."

As master and student began to catch up, Roshi having forgiven him apperantly, Bulma and Yamcha began to search the rubble for the ball, and I gave the attack one more try. Clearing my mind, I focused on how Roshi had channeled his energy, and mimiced him down to the last detail. I felt my power thrumming in my hands, and it felt different this time. With a shout, I shot my hands forward, and the power vanished as soon as I saw the blue sphere form. 'Why!? I did everything right! Why can't I get this damn move to work!' I growled, anger running through me, and I didn't even have to think about it, Piccolo's Masenko coming to my hands as I fired it in rage towards my target, and missed. Missed badly, as I hit Yamcha's car, blowing the poor thing to smithereens. Whoops.

Roshi and Ox-King jumped at the noise, Roshi's eyebrows shotting up as he observed the damage my attack had dealt. "Whoa now, that wasn't the Kamehameha, but that was pretty close! It took me 50 years to learn that move, and you almost do it in one day. You have some potential there, Son Goku. You really are Gohan's grandson. Would you like to come and train with me?" Holy crap he used my name.

"Yes sir, I'd be honered. After we're done with the Dragon Balls, I'll come to your island." I'd have to find some way to drag Yamcha with me though. Speaking of Yamcha, he and Bulma returned, the 7-star ball clutched in her palm, a grin over her face, a grin that vanished upon seeing the remains of the car. Yamcha wasn't happy.

"Goku, what happened to my car. I liked that car. The AC was working great, the other one I have barely has that going for it. It even had a cd player, a cd player Goku!"

"I tried to do the Kamehameha and I uh, I missed. I didn't even do the attack, that happened when I got angry when I failed. I'm sorry?" He walked over to the remains, fell to his knees and wailed like a man mourning for a lost lover. Ox-King saved my butt though.

"Well if you need a car, take my old one! I'm not gonna need it anymore." He tossed a capsule into the air, and with the familiar "boomf", a hover-car burst into existence. "It's not the newest one out there, but this baby can move!"

"Goku? I forgive you, only if this thing has cupholders." It did, four of them even. "You're good." I pumped my fist in the air, Bulma muttering something about stupid boys, and we all piled in, only to have Roshi interrupt us.

"I think you're forgetting something missy."

"Oh yeah, you didn't forget that did you. Alright, give me a minute. Oolong, come here, the rest of you stay." Confused, the pig got up, the two of them walking out of sight. A munute or two later, Bulma called out from behind the wall. "I'm ready old-timer!" A grin on his face, Roshi scampered over.

After a little bit, which felt like forever, I got impatient, and got up to go drag her back over. I rounded the corner to see Roshi staring at the setting sun, looking like he could die right then and now, and he'd be content with his life. Bulma was stalking back towards the car, fuming at Oolong, who didn't look happy either.

Expanding the map on the radar as far as she could, she found the location of the last six Dragon Balls. "Alright, they're to the west, pretty far to the west actually. Let's get going."

"Wait! Goku, before you leave, remember what I said earlier? If you came back with the fan?" Ox-King wasn't gonna let me leave without an answer to his marriage arrangement was he. Here's hoping I don't insult him too badly with this.

"I'm very honored by your offer Ox-King, but I must decline. I don't think it would work out between us." He looked saddened somewhat by my answer, then that turned into a forced peaceful look.

"You don't think she's good enough for you?"

"Yamcha start the car." Not needing to be told twice, the scar-faced bandit gunned it, Fire Mountain soon fading into the background. I'd rather not have to deal with him being pissed at me for a percieved slight against his daughter.

"So Goku, what did the Ox-King mean by "when you come back with the fan"? Was he offering a reward or something?" Bulma was looking over her shoulder at me, anger seeming to have faded.

"Yeah he uh, he might have, aw hell wih it. He offered me ChiChi's hand in marriage. I declined. I'm a little too young to be worrying about that." That is the biggest lie I hope I ever have to tell.

"You turned it down? You do realize the guy's loaded right? Think of the money you'd have by proxy though. You'd never have to work a day in your life again." Yamcha didn't agree with my decision. Lazy bum.

"Well that'd get boring real quick though. I'd like to earn my keep if I can, and besides, I'd never get the chance to slack off like that anyway. Mom wouldn't let me."

"You know, you haven't talked about your mom at all Goku. Why not?" Bulma's query may have seemed innocent, but her question had made suppressed memories surface, everything she put me through was flashing through my head. I didn't need to remember the tail training. Nor the flight training. Actually, I just didn't need to remember any of it.

"... reasons. Let's leave it at that. Trust me, you don't know the terror she is. She is without a doubt, the scariest thing on this whole damn planet."

"You ok? You look like you've remembered something you didn't want to."

"I did Bulma. I did. Don't ever ask her to train you, if you don't want to need years of therapy. Take my word for it."

CHAPTER 11: END.

This one fought me for a little while, writers block is a bitch, even though I can still skate by off of canon. Speaking of which, would you all rather I slowly retread Dragon Ball, and see what changes I plan on for the whole saga piece-meal, or start abridging it more than I already am? Let me know in the reviews, or don't, as I might not decide to do that. I don't know.

Goku dodged the ChiChi bullet, on account of knowing that marriage isn't food, and him being almost three times her age mentally. I don't know if I'll stick to canon pairings, but if I do, that one won't come up until the end of Dragon Ball. And he still can't do the Kamehameha. Piccolo's moves come easily to him though. Thankfully, King Piccolo never used the Masenko in this story, so Roshi won't get suspicious.

As always, Read and review, Green Man out.


	13. Chapter 13

Alright ladies and gentlemen, and those of you who don't fit that criteria, we've arrived at the end of the Pilaf Saga. This one fought me for some time, so that's why it's been awhile since the last update. I do apologize, so this one will be the biggest chapter yet to make up for it. Anyway, without further ado, onto the chapter! One more thing. It has come to my attention that Yamcha only obtained his scars before the 22nd World Tournament, and I've already described him as scarred, so that's my mistake. He got his scars earlier here. God I haven't even started on anything past Pilaf and I've already screwed something up. Argh.

'Characters thoughts'

"Characters speaking"

CHAPTER 12: START

After the departure, more like fleeing from a possibly incensed Ox-King, from Fire Mountain, and the retrieval of the Seven-star ball, we were making good time in our journey to Pilaf's base. The trip was mostly silent, given that I'm pretty sure Bulma was still somewhat annoyed with me over letting the balls we'd obtained get stolen in such a careless manner. We stopped at the first town we saw to refuel and get supplies, Bulma ditching us with the car to go, her own words, "Finally get rid of this damn outfit and get some real clothes." As she walked away, I noticed some of the people staring at her in fear, as if she was liable to lash out and do something horrible at any moment. Weird.

As we went to pay for the gas, the attendant almost melted into his seat when Yamcha asked how much it would cost. "C-cost?! I-it costs nothing! it's free of charge! Please accept my h-humble offering!" Ok, something's up. Yamcha just shrugged, and walked back to the hovercar, evidently not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Hey Yamcha, I'm gonna go find Bulma, make sure she's not causing trouble. You gonna stay here at the car or you coming?"

"I think I'll stay here, don't want anybody taking this baby. You know, after somebody, not gonna say who, trashed my pride and joy. Don't want this thing getting stolen now." For the love of, I'm not gonna live that down ever am I?

"I said I was sorry! I wasn't even aiming for your car, I don't know how my attack hit it!" Judging by the poorly contained laughter, gonna say that's a no for that ever getting dropped. Just walk away Goku, go find Bulma and find out why everybody here is terrified of her. The station attendant jumped a little when I asked for directions to the nearest clothing store, but give them he did. Thanking the man, I followed the road, taking the first left, then a right, and found Bulma leaving the store, a short, turban-clad man shouting at her as he held the pair of bunny ears in his hand. If you ask me, her new outfit looks like something you'd see from Aladdin.

"Oh there you are. Do you have any idea why the people here are so scared of you? Besides him obviously."

"Yeah I do. Apparantly, there's a group of thugs around this area led by a rabbit gangster. And they've been terrorizing this place for a while now. So when they saw me with the ears and outfit, naturally they assumed I was one of them and gave me everything for free. Don't think that's gonna happen anymore though. Where's Yamcha?"

"He's back at the car, said he wants to make sure nothing happens to his new baby. I tell ya, you accidentally blow up one car, and suddenly you can't be trusted around motor vehicles." That got a snicker out of her, so hopefully she's cooled off regarding the Dragon Balls. Before I could ask what's in the case she's carrying, two men dressed in a rabbit-themed getup lept from the alley that we were about to turn down. Well, I guess this must be members of this Rabbit Gang. Least they came to us.

"Hold it right there! I've never seen you two before, and the rules around here is all newcomers must forfeit their valuables to Boss Rabbit! Now hand em over, or else we'll... we'll get uh, violent." Ok, what? What kind of half-assed robbery is this? What're they even... oh. They're not even noticing my existence at the moment, too preoccupied with hitting on Bulma. She din't even pretend to humor the clowns.

"Goku? These ruffians are blocking my path. Would you be so kind as to remove them please?"

"That depends, how hard should I remove them? Unconscious or break something?" At the sound of us being so blasé about the potential maiming of their persons, plus Bulma having shot them down, that was all the invitation they needed to take the answer of how hard I should hit them out of my hands.

"Hey! Don't just talk about us like we're not even here! We're members of the Rabbit Gang! Boss Rabbit's direct subordinates! You can't just dismiss us so URK!" The larger of the two dropped to the ground, arms curled around his gut as he passed out. The smaller one seemed to think about his chances, and did something that I honestly thought I'd never see. He turned and ran. Smart. Which meant he's gonna be a pain in the ass.

"You haven't heard the last of this! Boss Rabbit's gonna be here soon, and he'll take you out before you can blink!" The townspeople took a second to process his parting threat, everything coming to a halt as they did so. Then the panic ensued, everybody running for cover, throwing themselves inside every building they could. I've never seen a busy street turn empty so quickly. As we arrived back at the gas station, Yamcha had evidently been accosted by a couple of rabbit mooks as well, their unconscious bodies sprawled across the ground around the car.

"Oh hey Goku. You run into some of these guys too, or was it just me? They said something about, "Boss Rabbit's gonna make me sorry", after I took care of them. You have any idea what they were talking about?" I shrugged, I could not for the life of me remember any rabbit gang that Goku ran into in Dragon Ball.

"Your guess is as good as mine Yamcha. We ran into a couple of em on our way back here, but one ran off after I took out his buddy. Lemme guess, they said something about newcomers handing over their stuff to Boss Rabbit?" The scar-faced bandit nodded.

"Yeah, when they mentioned calling him, the people around vanished inside their homes. Apparantly this guy's been terrorizing this place for some time now. I don't know what he's capable of, so keep your guard, GOKU MOVE!" Whirling around immediately, I tried dodging the palm of a large, humanoid rabbit, but it was too late. He'd gotten too close, and the last thing I heard before I saw blackness was him taunting me.

I didn't know how long I was out for, time seemed to blur like it does when you're sleeping, but all I can remember was an omni-present darkness. The silence was the worst part, no matter what I did, how loud I shouted or however many _ki_ blasts I launched, there was no sound. I couldn't even hear myself think. Before panic could fully set in, I saw a light off in the distance, growing brighter and brighter. "Maybe I can, hey I can hear sound again!" Elated by the recovery of something that I'd probably never take for granted again, I took off towards the light, reaching it in moments, and suddenly I startled awake in the hovercar.

"Goku! You're back!" Blinking against the glare of the sun, for the breif moment I saw it before Bulma threatened to choke me with her grip, that's not a hug I don't care what she says. I sat up in the seat, looking around for the giant rabbit, and seeing him and his men tied up and unconscious at Yamcha's feet. Whatever he did to me, Yamcha had avoided it.

"Back? What do you mean back? Did he send me somewhere when he grabbed me?" Releasing me from her death grip, a questioning look crossed her face.

"He turned you into a carrot when he touched you, don't you remember?" A carrot? He turns you into a carrot? What kind of stupid ability is... oh. Oh right, this is where the whole "Goku went to the moon" thing came from. My memory's gonna get me killed some day I swear.

"I don't actually, there was just darkness everywhere, and I remember a light, but that's it." Oh my God I ran towards a light when I was surrounded by darkness. Nice going there Goku, want to investigate the creepy basement in the dark alone next time?

"Huh, well Oolong remembered being a carrot, although that only lasted for about ten seconds before he shifted back. Anyway, while you were out, I asked around about any Dragon Balls, and the villagers said that they had one, but a woman and a ninja-dog of all things came and took it, claiming it in the name of Emperor Pilaf or something." So Shuu and Mai took this one as well, was it before or after they stole ours? Eh, doesn't matter. We'll get them all from Pilaf's castle regardless.

"Ok, so unless there's any reason to stay here," my stomach choosing that precise moment to demand attention, "on second thought, let's get some food before we go grab the rest of the balls."

(Later that day)

The villagers were more than happy to feed us after we took care of the Rabbit Gang for them. I don't think they planned for my appetite though. Twelve years and I'm still not used to it. We said our farewells, and took off for Pilaf's castle, the sun slowly setting behind us as we tore through the desert, Yamcha pressing the hovercar to it's limits. I can see why people loved muscle cars now, this is pretty fun, even if Nimbus is faster. A short while later, we came within sight of Pilaf's castle, the home of a short emperor with an even shorter temper, which was saying something.

"Man, this Pilaf guy's got some good taste. Nice looking castle he's got there." With a large set of stairs seemingly made out of sand, and a door set into the middle of the stairs, a hangar entrance maybe, four tall spires on each corner, and a radar on top, it was indeed a nice looking castle. Shame we're probably gonna end up breaking it somehow.

"Don't compliment the enemy Yamcha, they already have an ego several sizes too large. Be ready for an ambush, he probably knows we're coming." I had to say something. No sooner than those words had left my mouth, several pillars shout up from the ground, rapidly closing in on us. Yamcha threw the car in a wide turn, barely managing to escape the trap meant to crush us, and instead drove right into a pit that opened beneath us. Yamcha sighed as we began to fall.

"You had to say something, didn't you Goku?" Shrugging at the bandit, the hovercar plummeting to the ground. Leaving my seat, I grabbed Puar and Oolong while Yamcha grabbed Bulma, the two of us waiting until the ground was within fifty feet, then leaping from the car, landing on the walls and slowing our descent through controlled leaps to the bottom. The car was surprisingly still in one piece, mostly anyway. Something approaching fixable at any rate. Setting my cargo down, I tested the strength of the walls immediately, my fists slamming into them. Nothing. I tried using the Masenko, succeeding in blowing a hole about half the size of my head in the surprisingly durable stone. A screen popped into the room from a hidden panel, Pilaf's face soon being displayed across the monitor.

"Got you! You bunch have been a pain to deal with, blowing up my minions in the desert like that!" What was he talking... oh my God the bomb wasn't disarmed. I could have killed somebody. "Aha! You! The monkey boy, you did it, didn't you? Your guilt is obvious on your face, don't even try to deny it! For that, you're going to get "The Treatment." At that note, a claw burst out from the roof, shooting down and grabbing me before I could react.

"Goku!" Yamcha darted for me, but before he could attempt to free me the claw retracted into the ceiling, pulling me to God knows where. Which was apparantly Pilaf's monitoring room, my friends being displayed on a large monitor with several screens. Hold up, was that a giant pinball room? Really Pilaf? Said midget glowered at me as he strode over, Shu and Mai flanking him.

"Alright boy, I'll make this quick. Either hand over the last Dragon Ball now, and I'll let your friends go, or don't, in which case I'll crush them in that room." All jokes about him aside, he'd probably do it. If he was bluffing, it was a good one.

"See now, there's a problem with that. I don't have it." I really didn't. Bulma had it on her, not trusting me with it after my mishap in letting them get stolen. I can't say I blamed her.

"Lies! You have it on your person! Mai, Shu, search him!" Doing as he instructed, they found no Dragon Ball, causing Pilaf to growl in rage as he pressed a button, the claw shooting back down the passage it carried me up, and dumping me on the ground. It shot for Yamcha next, but the bandit was on his guard and evaded it's grasp, his hand shooting out, filled with _ki_ and grappling with the claw, arms shaking under the strain. This gave me time to leap over, and between the two of us the claw didn't stand a chance, the shriek of metal pulling way was painfully loud, but at last it gave way, and with twin roars of effort we tore the claw clean off. Breathing hard, we bumped fists as we heard Pilaf's shouts of rage, and then we heard a hissing noise, and saw gas seeping into the chamber.

Not good, _ki_ could protect you from practically everything if you had enough power and used it right, but you still needed to breathe. Which was our downfall. Bulma fell first, followed shortly by Puar and Oolong, myself and Yamcha collapsing as we struggled to stay conscious, failing in our efforts. The last thing I saw was a door to the room opening, Pilaf rushing in and falling victim to his own gas. Heh, if that's the last thing I see in this life, it's a good sight.

(Scene Break)

"Tarble, how's your journey been so far?" The voice was a little distorted over the pod's built-in scouter, but it even though he hadn't spoke to the man in years, he still knew his father's voice.

"Rather uneventful, which is good news. I did have to make a stop at Planet Arlia to fix a minor malfunction in the pod's life support, so I haven't reached Earth yet. I should be arriving in the next hour or so, assuming nothing else goes wrong." Tarble knew what the next words from his father would be the instant he finished speaking.

"You shouldn't assume Tarble, it makes an ass out of-"

"Of "U and Me", I know father." The two laughed a little at that. If somebody had told Bardock that Vegeta had made a joke, he'd have them committed in a flash. These moments were few and far between with the pair, Vegeta's opinion of his youngest couldn't be called warm, although it wasn't nearly as harsh as before, having gone from feeling he was a disappointment to caring for him a little. "Have we any news on my brother?" The last the galaxy had heard, Prince Vegeta was in the company of Commander Nappa, on their way to one of the many planet's owned by the Cold Empire. The two vanished on the day Freeza was defeated, and have not been seen since.

Vegeta sighed, answering Tarble's question. "No news, which I suppose is good news. If he was dead it would have been paraded around the whole galaxy, and then some. You know how Cold is. Every day I wake and pray he hasn't decided to take the field himself. If he does, either Bardock and I must, **must** become Super Saiyans or the son of Paragus must learn to control his fits of rage. There is no other way we can sop him." Tarble couldn't help the nervous swallow. He'd heard story after boastful story of the strength of his father and King Bardock. If the two of them stood no chance against Cold...

"Father, forgive me for asking. But surely Cold has to know that if he were to move out himself, then victory would be his. Why hasn't he done so?"

Vegeta was silent for a moment, Tarble worrying if his question had crossed some sort of line before his answer came. "I believe, that Freeza's death at our hands shook Cold far more than he'd like to let on. The might of every Saiyan banded together like it was against Freeza, is something I'm sure even Cold would be wary of facing. And make no mistake, we could call it forth again if need be, and much faster than he thinks we can." Although his son could not see it, a smirk stretched across the General of the Saiyan armies. "The fact that he isn't sure that we _don't_ have a Super Saiyan plays some role I'd imagine."

Tarble inclined his head as if to acknowledge the point, even though the gesture was unseen. "Surely he's smart enough to realize the bluff right?" Then again, Tarble realized, the fear of a Super Saiyan is what drove Freeza to attempt his genocide to begin with. "Although, maybe he doesn't want to take that chance."

"Exactly. If Cold knew that we were essentially bluffing as our deterrent to stop him from slaughtering us, I honestly believe he might die of a stroke. I have to go now. Take care Tarble, and make sure Bardock's mate receives those scouters."

"I will father. You be careful too." A gruff laugh was his father's reply.

"When have I ever been?" The transmission ended, Tarble soon pulling up an eta on the pod's data pad, the digital display announcing arrival in around a half-hour. Although he wasn't one that absorbed himself in material things, he quite enjoyed the leisure activities one could do with technology.

'I wonder what it's like on Earth. More importantly, I wonder how good the food is.' And as if on cue, his stomach rumbled, and Tarble groaned. 'I had to think about food, didn't I?'

(Yamcha and co.)

Yamcha slowly came to, blinking away the blurriness in his vision as his mind shook off the groggy feeling. He looked around, finding that he was the first to recover, Goku and Bulma unconscious with no signs of that changing anytime soon. But Puar and Oolong were stirring, and Yamcha stumbled to his feet, shaking his head as he made his way over.

"Hey, Puar. Puar c'mon, we gotta get up. You up to transforming?" The shapeshifting cat groaned as she rose, rubbing her eyes as Oolong tried, and failed to use the wall to assist in his own attempts at standing. "Here, I'll get that hole Goku made a little wider. You two need to track down Pilaf and see where he's at. Feel up to it?"

Puar nodded, lazily floating up as the effects of the gas began wearing off. Oolong was not as easily ready to put himself at risk however. "And what do we do if he sends his goons at us huh? We can't exactly fight like you can. We'll be sitting ducks!" The bandit blew air through his nose, taking the pig's words into consideration, before disregarding them just as quickly.

"Simple. Don't get caught. It's dangerous, but hell. You two can shapeshift into almost anything, right? What's the worst that could happen?" Goku's unconscious form groaned in the corner.

(The worst that could happen.)

"If we make it outta here Puar, I'm gonna freaking kill your buddy!" Turns out, the worst that could happen involved a pack of rather angry guard dogs. The leader of the pack lept at Oolong, his snapping jaws just barely missing the pig-bat's feet, prompting him to scream as he flapped his wings ever faster. "You better have a plan, or we're gonna be dog food!" Puar ignored her companion, turning down a corridor into a wide, brightly lit room.

'Bumpers, springs, flippers, it's almost like the inside of a pinball machine.' As the dogs came charging through the door, it slammed shut with an ominous thud, trapping them inside. 'Oh this does not bode well. Wait, what's that sound?' Turning her head, Puar wished she had kept flying down the corridor. A giant silver ball rolled down a long, elaborately designed tube, before coming to a stop in front of the two, comically large flippers. "Oolong?"

"What?" He turned, and paled as he saw the giant ball. "...had to pick the pinball room, didn't you?" If Puar had five extra seconds, she would have spent them smacking Oolong upside the head. Alas, she did not. The flippers swung, the ball flying with a loud crack, sending all parties scrambling to avoid the projectile. The deadliest game of pinball was on. "Why couldn't Pilaf have just done the old lava cliche?!"

(Yamcha and co.)

"...and that's what happened. Any luck, Oolong and Puar should be back soon. The recently awakened Bulma absorbed the recap, following the bandit down the twisting halls of Castle Pilaf. "You still have that Dragon Ball on you right?" Bulma shhok her head, having checked for it first thing after waking. "Damn. We'll have to get it back. Any change with monkey boy over there?"

Turning her head, she frowned slightly. Given that Yamcha needed to be able to move freely if he had to fight, that left her stuck with lugging Goku around. Thankfully, he wasn't that heavy, but still. "No, he's still out. Any idea on why it's hit him harder than us?"

"Not a clue. Maybe because he's a kid? Or he could have breathed in more of the stuff." Bulma was leaning towards the former. Biology wasn't her area of expertise, but she knew enough to get by. As Yamcha peaked around a corner, he froze, before suddenly darting around the corner "Yamcha? What's up?" Her question was soon answered as the bandit reappeared, Puar and Oolong under each arm, a pack of angry-looking dogs at his heels.

Before Bulma could ask why he didn't simply render the mutts unconscious, a large, silver ball rounded the corner, before rolling in their direction. "RUN!" She said, more for her own sake. She took off, bolting down the corridor as fast as she could. Daring a quick glance behind, she shrieked as she noticed the sphere gaining on them. "Goku if you could wake up not that would be great!"

A groan, then movement. "Who's making all that damn," his mouth split in a yawn, Goku stretched atop Bulma's back, "rack... Why is there a ball chasing us." Dropping down from his perch atop Bulma's back, Goku picked up the heiress, and took off down the hallway, Yamcha soon matching his pace now that he didn't have to keep even the screaming girl.

"There!" Yamcha pointed out a turn up on the left, and they wasted no time taking it, ducking into the hallway, the dogs flying into the hall with them, the ball screaming on by. Setting down their cargo, Goku and Yamcha slid into a ready stance, prepared to render the dogs unconscious if need be. The mutts however, were too busy panting in a heap in front of the group, and so they went on their way.

"Puar, Oolong, you guys find anything?" Before they could inform Yamcha of their run-in with Shu and his dogs, Goku froze, before dashing to a window in the hall. "Goku? Everything ok?" Yamcha jogged over to the window, noting the dark clouds outside but nothing that justified the oddity of Goku's reaction. "You seeing things now monkey boy?"

Goku ceased his staring, and pointed out three small dots in the desert surrounding Castle Pilaf. "Yeah. I'm seeing Pilaf and crew about to use the Dragon Balls. Hell they might have already summoned the dragon." Before Yamcha could begin to ask for details, a rumble shook the castle, and a power flashed into existance. "Ok scratch that. Now they've summoned the dragon. We need to move before they get their wish." On that note, Goku simply pushed the window out of it's frame, and leaped down to the ground.

Yamcha turned to Bulma, the heiress eyeing the jump with a nervous look. "Listen I've had a couple of bad experiences with heights, so I'll just stay up hereeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Yamcha flashed Puar a thumbs up, before grabbing Bulma and following Goku out the window, the screams of Bulma fading as the pair fell. Puar sighed, before floating her way down. Leaving Oolong the sole occupant in the hall. The pig grumbled, but with a grunt of effort, transformed into a bat and flew down.

The two shapeshifters found Yamcha geting chewed out something fierce by Bulma, the bandit ignoring her in favor of walking towards Goku, the boy seemingly frozen in place. "Yamcha to Goku, anybody home? Didn't you just say we needed to stop Pilaf before he got his wish?" Goku turned his head, Yamcha oddly noting that it seemingly took far too much effort for him.

"Yamcha, listen to me. When the dragon appears, it's going to give itself an introduction, before asking for a wish. You have about a minute before it does. Get to Pilaf, and wish for something harmless, like the world's best candy or something, I don't care. But you all need to run, and take those three with you." Bulma stepped forward now, her anger at Yamcha momentarily forgotten.

"Why do we neeed to take them with us? Why do we need to run? Son, what's up? Are you alright?" Goku, through a supreme effort of will, turned to face Bulma, and the heiress took a unconscious step back. Those were not the eyes of the kid she'd grown to see as a friend, annoyance he could be, over their little trip. Those were the eyes of a predator, sizing her up like she was his next meal. "G-Goku?"

"Bulma. Listen to me. Get to Pilaf, stop his wish, and run. If you don't, you might very well **die**." Each word was ground out, a growl that was sending shudders down Yamcha's back growing more intense with every syllable. Before anybody could begin to do anything, lightning streaked across the clouds, the rolling thunder deafening cross the desert. A bright light flashed around the Dragon Balls, the gathered orbs pulsing.

"Bulma, we'll find out what's up with monkey-boy later. We need to move." Yamcha took off, Puar clinging tightly to his back as the scarred bandit sprinted for all he was worth, eating away at the distance between him and Pilaf's gang. 'Think Yamcha. Something's clearly wrong with Goku, but you can't deal with that right now. Get to the midget emperor, and stop his wish.' As Yamcha neared Pilaf, he realized he had absolutely no idea of what to wish for. Before he could begin to probe Puar's brain for ideas, the pulsating light from the Dragon Balls reached it's apex, and Yamcha would remember what happened next for the rest of his life.

"Holy... Puar, we are in way above our paygrade." His feline friend nodded in agreement. Bursting from the assembled Dragon Balls was a massive, emerald-green serpent, with horns like a stag jutting from it's head, contrasting with the green scales all over it's form. Two long, flowing whiskers danced in the wind as it floated in the sky, bobbing to and fro as if they had a will of their own. He almost lost the whiskers in the green hair at the dragon's cheeks, the tufts of hair like sideburns. Yamcha could not help the thought of this dragon shaving those sideburns and was almost consumed with a case of the giggles. And it's eyes, those deep crimson eyes, their gaze practically piercing his soul. As if he was being judged.

" **You who have gathered the seven Dragon Balls. I am the eternal dragon Shenron. Speak your wish, and it will be granted."** The dragon's voice was like thunder, booming across the desert, it's deep baritone almost painfully loud in Yamcha's ears. Utterly ignorant of the bandit behind him was Pilaf, the diminutive emperor ecstatic. Finally, Wold Domination was in his grasp! No longer would the world dismiss the Great Emperor Pilaf! No longer would the tyranny of items on the top shelf be tolerated!

Before he could give voice to his wish, a shrill voice cut through the silence the words of the dragon had left. The shamelessness it took to not only say it, but mean it, gave Bulma a twitch in her brow. "Shenron! I wish for a pair of panties!" Somewhere off in the back, if one was close enough to hear, Goku muttered under his breath about"stupid perverted pigs. " Shenron blinked once, as if even he found that wish out there.

Wih a mental shrug, Shenron dismissed the disbelieving reactions of the gathered being below. Wasn't the weirdest wish he had ever granted. It wasn't even in the top hundred. Certainly odd though. " **Very well. Your wish has been granted."** And with an effort of will, a power beyond that of mere _ki_ pulsed, and a golden light flashed, a pair of white panties dropping onto Oolong's head. **"I shall take my leave. Do not give me such a trivial wish next time."** The dragon rumbled, a slight narrowing of his crimson eyes at Oolong as he spoke, the shapeshifting pig gulping and nodding fervently. With a snort of amusement, Shenron was consumed by a blinding glow of light, the Dragon Balls ascending through the skies, spinning rapidly as they became a circle of light, before a boom of thunder had them all flying in seven directions, scattering over the planet.

In the silence that followed the dragon's departure, Yamcha noted Pilaf's stunned, albeit swiftly growing fury. The clouds parted, the light of the moon bathing Pilaf in a silvery glow, every inch of his face stretched in a seething expression. He opened his mouth to shriek orders to his subordinates, only for a savage roar to cut him off. Every eye present turned to Goku, the young boy's form convulsing, brown fur starting to grow along his skin. His head snapped forward, and all present would never be able to forget the sheer terror in his eyes.

 **"RUN!"**

His gi was torn to shreds as his body expanded, the awful, horrific sound of bones snapping and reshaping echoing across the desert. Goku's form doubled in size, tripled, and soon was shooting up to a height that rivaled Pilaf's castle, brown fur growing across his body. His mouth elongated into a rectangular snout, sharp, jagged teeth bared in a predatory snarl. His ears legthened into points, his tail, the width of a bus, whipping around in a frenzy as the transformation reached it's end. Son Goku, the monkey boy with unexplained strength was gone. A giant, berserk ape was in his place. The beast roared, meaty fists pounding its chest. The red eyes of the ape caught sight of the tiny creatures, and with a vicious snarl, lumbered forward.

Yamcha did the only thing he could do. He ran. He ran his ass off. Snatching Bulma, Puar, and Oolong in his arms, he turned and ran, with everything he had and then some. Over the loud booms of the ape's steps, he heard a roar of an engine, and saw Mai pulling alongside him in a hovercar. "Get in!" At the furrowing of his brow, her arm shot out, and with strength that was frankly disturbing considering her stature, hauled Yamcha and his cargo into the vehicle. "That thing's chasing us and you want to hold petty grudges?!" Puar, from her place in the cramped rear seat, bit her tongue. Argue later, survive now.

(Mount Paozu)

Gine yawned as she prepared for bed, performing a few stretches as she did. Her thoughts turned briefly towards her son as they usually did, and she wondered if her mate was alive. Before she could begin to dwell on her musings, a sudden, massive surge in her son's _ki_ reached her, and with a growing sense of horror, she realized that the moon was full tonight. "Dammit I told him never to look at the moon! Gohan!" The kind old man's face appeared at the top of the stairs, blinking sleepily at her form. "I'm heading out after Kakarot! That idiot ended up gazing at the moon, and he doesn't have any control over the transformation! I'm taking a senzu!"

Gohan rubbed his eyes, brain catching up to the words of Gine. "Why would you need a senzu? Surely this "Ozaru" transformation doesn't cause him damage?" Gine turned from where she stood, hand clenched on the doorknob. Gohan winced. 'That's going to have to be replaced.'

"It's for when I smack him for not listening. I'll be back soon." With that, Gine reached for the blindfold near the door, wrapping it around her eyes. It was tough, but she was able to resist the urge to gaze upon the moon. Her son did not have the self-control needed. With a burst of her deep crimson aura, Gine shot off like a rocket, the call of the moon only the smallest of cause for her increasingly-high heart rate. 'Kakarot if you've killed anybody when I get there, you are gonna regret it!'

(Goku)

Head, check. Pounding, but check. Limbs, sore, but check. Eyes? 'Oh crap. Either I've gone blind, or the light bill never got paid.' Before I could groan at my own joke, a clapping noise came from behind me, and I turned as I stood, my heart promptly jumping into my throat. Walking forward, still clapping like a jackass, was the one thing that I was worried of, the Saiyan side lurking in my subconscious. Kakarot.

' **Gotta admit, I was wondering if you'd ever show. 12 years I've been waiting here, which is awful by the way, I can see why they argued life in prison is worse than death back on Earth. Then when you finally mess up and let me loose, you greet me with a awful pun? Oi. Raditz could have done better. Raditz.'** Coming to a halt just out of arms reach, and I could somehow tell it wasn't by choice, was a mirror image of myself. Clad in the same dark purple gi that I was, save for a patch that read "Saiyan" in kanji over his heart. The main, and really only, difference between us was in our expressions.

While mine was currently rather stoic, with a layer of suppressed panic below the surface, his was calm, confidant, as if he knew for a fact that he was the best around. And his eyes were like a predator who'd just eaten his fill. If he felt like it, he'd end without a second thought. **'For the record I could end you if I felt like it, but that would not only be boring, it would also result in my demise, so I guess I should keep you around for now, 'Goku.'** It was the sneer he added at the end when he said my name is what snapped me from my trance.

'You sound like you don't like using that name for me, Kakarot.' My even tone belied the worry I felt. If my gut feeling was right, and I fully believed it was, he was fully aware of the life I lived before I became Goku. As I finished that train of thought, I remembered his comment on life imprisonment. Never before has my heart froze in such a manner. 'Exactly how much of my memories can you see anyway?'

' **Eh, I'd say, all of them? Really boring life you lead, but you did have good music taste, so I guess your Earth isn't all bad. And no, I don't like calling you "Goku". Wanna know why?'** Despite some worry over what his answer would be, I motioned with my hand for him to continue. **'Because you haven't fully accepted that your old life is over! You're not a pathetic, weakling human anymore! That life is dead, and here you are, still clinging to the past, scared about changing the story! That's why you can't make his techniques work, because you haven't accepted that you are Son Goku the Saiyan, not Jake the human.'**

Taken aback by his outburst, I nervously swallowed, before my brain caught up to what he said at the end. 'I never even watched that show how did, never mind. So until I can accept that this is real, my old life is dead and gone, I won't be able to use anything that Goku knew?' Kakarot, an expression like a teacher would adopt upon a struggling student finally grasping the base concept of the class, nodded. 'And lemme guess. It's not just gonna be as simple as just consciously acknowledging that fact, is it.' He shook his head.

' **Is it ever that simple? No. There's a huge change needed in how you not only think, but how you behave, how you fight. I'm not saying you have to be Goku ounce for ounce, Lord knows I don't wanna deal with the stupidity he could get up to, but you're far too human at the moment. Which is where I come in.'** As he finished speaking, a rumbling shook the "world", for lack of a better word. Kakarot sighed.

 **'Waking up already? Figures. Aight bozo, if you want to get over this little block you have and really become a Saiyan, in body and soul, come find me.'** At that, he turned on his heel and started walking away.

'Wait a minute, what do you mean come find you?! How am I supposed to do that?!' He turned, and with a grin that makes you want to punch a man, replied.

' **Would be kind of boring for me to tell you, don't ya think? Nah, I can't do that to you, I hate that "Vague Mentor" crap as much as you do. Learn how to control your Ozaru state, and that'll be a start. See ya.'** And with the rumbling growing louder and louder, Kakarot vanished, leaving me alone in my subconscious.

'Huh, he wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be.' As the roaring in my ear swelled to its climax, a realization dawned on me, and I groaned as I began to wake. 'How the hell am I supposed to master the Ozaru when I don't have my tail anymore?!'

' **And who said you don't have your tail, dumbass?!'** His parting shot ringing in my throbbing head, I groggily awoke to a intense pain in my chest, like an elephant had crushed my ribs. Turns out I wasn't too far off either. I saw Yamcha's back turned, the scarred man nervously discussing things with somebody I couldn't see, and I was in too much pain to even try and sense their energy. Then he stepped aside, and the bolt of fear when I saw who he'd been talking to shoved the pain aside and gave me an all-too clear focus. Gine. _Mom._ Scratch my earlier worries about my Saiyan side, I'll take Kakarot any day over her.

The dark-haired Saiyan crouched down above my prone form, her face schooled into a mask of neutrality. That only made it worse if I'm being honest. Then she placed her hand under my neck, gently lifting me into almost a reclining position against her torso. "Here, eat this." I didn't get to see what she was holding, but as I chewed whatever it was, and swallowed, I discovered the greatest thing in the history of creation. Thank God for Senzu. My bones instantly knit themselves together, the various cuts and bruises acorss my body fading instantly without even a mark. My energy jumped too, higher than it was before.

"Thanks Mom. So uh, why are you" I did not get to finish that sentence. Taking great care to not do more than lightly bruise, Gine slugged me across the cheek, and I went skidding face-first into the desert sand, leaving quite the trail behind me. I'd rate it a 6/10, the Russian judge docking some points with my poor form. As I staggered to my feet, I heard Yamcha instantly start shouting at Mom, and although I was touched by how quickly he came to my defense, I might want to shut him up before he gets hit too. "I'm fine Yamcha, I'm fine. She's hit me harder than that before in training."

He stared at me, mouth opening and closing in rapid succession, as if his brain stopped working. Honestly, he looked like a fish. Whatever errors he had upstairs was quickly fixed though. "Before?! Goku that doesn't help at all! She hit you harder than anything I've ever seen, and you're just gonna ignore it?!" Sighing, Gine reached out with one arm, and gently flicked Yamcha in the forehead. And when I say gently, I mean he was sent skidding on his face like I was, his feet actually sticking straight up in the air. He made an L shape, I'm impressed.

"While I appreciate your speed at coming to my son's defense, how I choose to discipline him for failing to obey my one command is not something I will tolerate arguments with. You're not his father, you don't get a say, and if that was enough to seriously injure him, he's a horrible excuse for a Saiyan." In the middle of helping Yamcha out of the ground, I sighed as Gine, Mom, still not completely use to that yet, maybe Kakarot has a point, went and announced to all Earthlings present of my non-human status.

Observing the confusion on their faces, and a shrug of acceptance from Oolong, Gine raised a brow. "You had not told them yet, Kakarot?"

"No, hadn't got around to it yet. Didn't know how to approach the subject." I mean, how do you go and tell people, "Hi, I'm a member of an alien race that ravaged the galaxy for years, and comitted acts of genocide at least once, and we blow up planets. But I'm safe I assure you." That'd go over reaaaally well.

"Excuse me, if I may?" That was a new voice. I turned, and saw a dead ringer for a young Vegeta. Except he looked far, far too polite to be the prince. Former prince, if I remember right. "My name is Tarble, youngest son of Chief-General Vegeta of the Saiyan armies, and I believe I can answer any questions you may have about the Saiyan race. or, you could just take a look at this data-pad." Tarble, his existence remembered to indeed be a thing, handed a tablet to a almost shaking Bulma, the short Saiyan smiling at the capsule heiress.

As he instructed Bulma on how to access the data stored on the device, I turned to Mom, Yamcha rubbing the welt on his head. "So, what happened exactly?" At once, the two sighed, Yamcha stepping forward.

"Well, it went down like this..."

(Yamcha's flashback)

"He's swinging again! Left! Go left!" Bulma's frantic instructions shrill in her ear, Mai jerked the wheel of the hovercar in the specified direction, the meaty paw of the Great Ape narrowly missing them. "Can't this thing go any faster?!"

"If it could, it would! Now stop screaming and let me focus, unless you want that beast to catch up!" Gods, maybe she should have left them behind. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, Mai cooly observed the giant monkey that Son Goku had become. "Huh, he appears to be losing interest in us."

Yamcha turned and looked, and true to her words, Goku had stopped chasing them, turning his back to the overloaded car and roaring at seemingly nothing. 'The hell is he doing?' "It's like he's challenging something, the way he's beating at his chest."

As to what the beast was picking a fight with, Yamcha took a guess at whoever owned the crimson aura that had just burst into existence behind it's back. While his ki senses were not as adept as Goku's yet, the energy of various beings like a soft flame to his senses, this power was a inferno compared to the bonfire that was the ape's. He swallowed audibly, his mouth drying almost instantly. "Hey uh, whatever your name is."

"It's Mai."

"Well Mai, you can stop the car, I don't think Goku's gonna be a problem anymore." Before the dark-haired woman could begin to question what exactly had possessed him, a sound like an explosion shot across the desert, a shockwave following, and quickly gaining on the hovercar. "Oh. Oh that's bad."

"Indeed. For you, anyway." Jumping at the voice from behind, Yamcha saw a woman in a dark-purple gi, long, untamed black hair whipping in the wind. Before he could do more than stare slack-jawed at the newcomer, who was wearing an honest-to-God _blindfold_ , she reached down, and with seemingly no effort at all, hefted the car into the air, and within seconds placed it down atop a towering pillar of stone. He hadn't even seen her move.

'So fast. I barely saw her reach for the car and then we're on top of this spire? I could at least follow Goku when we fought, even when he got pissed and started wailing on me, but this woman, she's on a whole other level.' Although he wasn't so conceited as to think he was the strongest being on the planet, Yamcha took pride in knowing he was, at worst, pretty high on the top fifty. For this stranger to not even throw a punch and yet outclass him so effortlessly, well it stung a little. The woman, for her part, didn't even pay him any mind, tracking the Great Ape's movements flawlessly.

Bulma, finding her nerve after a few, tense moments, swallowed the lump in her throat and spoke up. "Um, your name was Gine, right?" She turned, brow raised past the cloth wrapped round her eyes. "Why are you here? How did you even find us? We've gotta be hundreds of miles from Mt. Paozu."

Gine inclined her head, and was silent for a moment. "As for your first question, yes, my name is Gine. As for your second, I am here because my son failed to heed the one thing I told him not to do before he left. And finally, when you have as much power as Kakarot does," she pointed behind her back, just as Goku smashed another towering piller of rock, "it's rather easy to find one's location."

Ignoring the confused bandit behind her, Bulma nodded. "That, _ki_ sensing, right?" A nod. "Is that something anybody can learn or, never mind that's not important right now. Is there a way to make Goku go back to normal, or is he stuck like this?" A resounding crash boomed throughout the desert, Pilaf's wails about "My precious castle!" ignored by all. Gine shrugged, and pointed towards the moon, palm open.

"Well, there are a couple options. One, if the moon is destroyed, he would revert back from the Oozaru state." A sphere of light formed in her hand, a deep hum emanating from it. Bulma's heart was in her throat instantly, somehow knowing full well that was not a bluff. "But that would be catastrophic for this world, so that's only a last resort. The second," she turned, her hand following the thrashing tail of her son easily, "is to sever his tail. That would cancel the transformation and also revert him back to his base state. Also only a last resort."

Before Bulma could gather her thoughts and ask what exactly the Oozaru transformation was, a low roar reached the ears of all present, the sound almost like a jet engine, and growing louder. Gine turned, and stared into the seemingly empty, save for the moon, night sky. Bulma followed her unseeing gaze, and slowly, a bright white light came into sight, almost like a comet.

(Tarble's pod)

"Well, I'm finally in Earth's atmosphere. Thank heaven, I'm starving." Having long since consumed every last piece of food on the ship, the teenaged Saiyan was eagerly looking forward to a nice, hot meal, an actual bed to sleep in, a giant Oozaru to crash into... "Wait a minute, is that-"

(Earth)

" **GRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

(Tarble's pod)

"Oh dear sweet Kai's it is! AND WHY IS IT ROARING AT ME?!"

(Earth)

He didn't quite know what it was, but after losing it's small, yet elusive prey, and having the tiny person stop his blow cold, the Oozaru was done with everything. So when a fire appeared from the heavens, he planted his feet, roaring his challenge. He stayed in that stance, right until the fire crashed straight into his chest, easily having enough force behind it to shatter his ribs, and then some. Bellowing in pain, the Oozaru staggered back, one hand cradling his broken chest, the other swiping at air, trying to find whatever hurt him so.

Gine, staring in shock, shook herself, and after quickly stuffing everybody back into the car, jumped down from her perch atop the massive spire. Leaving the dizzied, dry-heaving in Oolong's case, occupants behind, she blurred towards the kneeling form of her son.

"Kakarot. Can you hear me?" A low rumble came from his chest. "Good. Now, you have five seconds to calm yourself and turn back to normal before I finish what that space-pod started and knock you out and change you back that way." The low rumble intensified as she finished speaking, the animal-brain of the Oozaru knowing a challenge when it heard one. Gine lifted her blindfold just enough for one eye to peak out, and silently raised her _ki_ far above that of her son. " **NOW."**

To the shock of the group behind her, Oolong cursing his lack of a video-camera, the giant ape whimpered, and began shrinking in size, Gine hopping off his snout as the transformation receded. As the ape vanished completely, leaving a horribly wounded Son Goku in it's place.

Yamcha stared with a dull expression, wondering if he'd finally gone crazy, or if that sleeping gas affected him more than he thought. Sighing deeply, he made his way over to his unconscious friend.

(End flashback.)

"...and that's the gist of it." Blinking sluggishly, the Oozaru transformation is not a fun thing to go through when you're not used to it, I nodded as Yamcha finished his tale. "Anyway, I'm glad you're back to normal, and you know, you're not hurt anymore, but uh, you think you could put some clothes on? I'd rather not get on some list ya know?"

What is he... oh. Well, that explains the breeze. Tarble emerged from behind Yamcha, tossing me a set of dark-blue pants and a matching top. This kinda looks like the average Saiyan bodysuit. As I began dressing, I noticed Mom placing a scouter on her ear, before pressing a button. As symbols began whirring across the green display, and I could practically feel Bulma salivating over a chance to play with one, a voice I haven't heard in twelve years came from the scouter.

"So, Tarble made to Earth. Is that you Gine?" To this day, I still remember the first of about a dozen times I've ever seen Mom cry. Then I blinked and she was gone, having moved behind one of the few boulders left around the immediate area. A few minutes of silence, and then she called me over. Jogging past an awkward Tarble, the teen trying to shift Bulma's focus onto his tech instead of him, I made my way behind Mom's chosen boulder.

"Here, Kakarot. Your father wants to talk to you." And she dropped the scouter into my outstretched hand. A conversation with dear old Dad huh? This should be interesting. I'm honestly surprised he's alive though, what with Freeza bearing down on Planet Vegeta when we left.

"Hey pops, how's being the King of the Saiyans treating you?" Mom raised a brow at my casual manner of greeting, but it was answered by a low chuckle.

"Well, for starters there's more paperwork than you'd think the job would entail. Then you have the assistants telling me I can't do this, secretaries scheduling my life for me, honestly I don't know how Vegeta didn't crack. I think he's relieved that he doesn't have to be in charge anymore if you ask me." A mental image of some mouse of a woman bossing Bardock around came to my mind, and I barely suppressed the laughter.

"How's everything going down there on Earth? Gine told me you had just transformed for the first time."

"Well, aside from challenging a space pod to a game of chicken and almost dying, it's going pretty good." I heard full-on laughter over the scouter for a minute, coming from more than one person. Bardock, having managed to control his mirth, breathed deeply before speaking again.

"You do realize that's going to spread everywhere, right? You're gonna make me and Raditz look bad. Though I get the feeling you don't really care about that do you?"

"No not really." Another chuckle from him, and a muttering in the background of how I'm "just like his friggin grandfather, shameless and sarcastic as hell."

"Well, I've got to be going soon. War's still going on against Cold and his damned empire. I'll try to end it as soon as I can so I can come see you two, ok? You take care now, my son." I have to admit, hearing the pride in his voice when he said "my son" felt pretty good.

"You too, Father. Here's Mom again." I handed the scouter back to her, a small smile on her face, and went back to the others.

(Scene break)

After everything was over, Mom stuffing the scouter somewhere on her person and Tarble handing her the tools for it's upkeep and the instructions on them to me, by the time we thought to do anything about Pilaf and co, they had long vanished. Hopefully they'll behave this time. Pfft, I doubt it. Eh I'll track them down later.

Speaking of Tarble, he'd somehow agreed to take up residence with Bulma, the capsule heiress having spun a convincing enough web of half-truths about "needing an experienced touch" with the scouter technology. God have mercy on your soul Tarble, because I'm not saving you from that.

Mom had asked Yamcha what wish was made on the dragon, and chuckled as the bandit pointed to the pair of panties still sitting on Oolong's head. Before we all went our seperate ways, I had a quick talk with Mom, and after getting her approval, rushed over to Yamcha. Who, after gaping at me for a moment, had quickly agreed.

We'd stopped at Mt. Paozu, mostly so I could rest and get any helpful information out of Grandpa Gohan. Ok, I did want to see how Yamcha would react at seeing him, since apparently, everybody who was anyody in the Martial Arts scene knew of him. But alas, Yamcha didn't frak out, somehow putting on the air of a respectful young man. Hell, I bought it for a second.

After a night or two back home, we were off, and I wondered if I'd finally be able to get that damned _Kamehameha_ down. We reached the ocean shore pretty quickly, the two of us racing like the devil himself, or worse, _Mother_ , was at our heels.

Actually crossing the ocean was fairly simple, Yamcha using me and the Nimbus as a mobile launching pad to jump off of. I felt our target waiting for our arrival, and soon we wrrived at Kame Island, home of Master Roshi.

"Well now, you certainly got here quicker then I expected of you. I see you've taken me up on my offer of training?" I nodded. "Good, good. Tell you the truth, getting kind of bored spending my days out here, away from the scene. Although," he began, turning his sunglasses-covered gaze to Yamcha, "don't quite remember saying anything about training him."

Face kept carefully deadpan, I reached into my pack and retrieved several magazines that Roshi would enjoy. God bless Grandpa Gohan. Roshi's eyes bugged out through his shades, and as he leaped for the adult magazines, I sidestepped the old master, leaving him to faceplant into the sand. He picked himself up, and shot me a look that held some measure of admiration.

"Playing that game I see?"

"Yyyyep."

"You go right for the throat don't you boy?"

"Mom would be disappointed if I didn't." He laughed at that, and took the bribe, stuffing them into his shirt.

"All right, you got yourself a deal. I'll train the two of you, but I warn you, I will not make it easy, nor will I let up. If you two have any breath left in your body at the end of the day to curse me, then I've made a mistake. Can you two fly?" Yamcha shook his head while I did a quick lap around the island. "Well you not knowing is irrelevant, as the use of _Bukujutsu_ is banned unless I state otherwise. You will also be wearing weighted turtle shells upon your back, same as I am. Any complaining, moaning or griping and I will make it worse. Understood?" A quick glance at each other, and Yamcha and I answered with a grin.

"Smiling? Oh you poor sweet summer children, if you only knew."

(Two weeks later)

"Hah hah hah hah. Goku." The scar-faced former bandit panted, his body soaked with sweat.

"Y-yeah?" Not that I was any better mind.

"I hate you."

"I-it's ok, I h-hate me too." Roshi appeared behind our prone forms, a bullhorn in hand.

"DO I HEAR WHINING?!" Honestly, I was tempted to answer yes to see how bad it could get.

CHAPTER 12: END.

Ok, that one took far, far too long to get done. I am very sorry, I'll try to avoid this happening in the future.

Goku's gone and done it now, and Roshi is gonna be a lot more strict here than in canon. Mind you, he's still gonna make them do milk runs and the like, but he's also gonna take far too much amusement in pushing his young students. He's seen what happened to his fellow pupils back in the days of King Piccolo. He'd rather not lose any of his own due to weakness.

And something that I was debating about how I would handle it is introduced. Namely, Kakarot. Since Goku never hit his head, his Saiyan side is not dulled at all, but it was suppressed at birth from his already-adult mind. As such, it was growing in the background, and finally got a chance to use the body that he's been confined in when Goku transformed into an Ozaru. He's not quite so bad though, and I didn't want to write the whole "enemy within" thing as I don't think I could do it justice. Yes, there is a plot-point about Goku's problem with letting go of his human life. Hopefully it comes out as well as I envision it, but that's a long way down the road.

As for why Gine didn't transform, any Saiyan that can control their transformation can resist it and the urge to stare at the moon. The blindfold was so she wouldn't be tempted any further. Goku didn't transform again since Kakarot knew better than to let it happen again. Gine scares him.

As for Tarble not transforming, I'm gonna take some liberties and say he can't. This ties into his gentle, easygoing nature. Being bereft of a Saiyan's bloodlust and thirst for battle, on top of not even being able to transform led to his exile.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell, Yamcha is not going to be thrown to the side and ignored. He was Goku's first real fight for heavens sake, and to see how he was treated was kind of annoying if I'm honest. Not that Krillin will be the new Yamcha, but I wanted to give him some spotlight.

That about covers what I wanted to say after the chapter. Again, I am sorry it took so long, but life happens, and that takes priority. I'll try not to let that happen again. Read and review, I really appreciate it. Green Man out.


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